Tuesday's upbeat data point: the International Monetary Fund is now forecasting that the global economy will grow 3.9% in 2010, up from the earlier forecast of 3.1% growth in October 2009.

The global economy grew a scant 1.3% in 2009, equivalent to a global recession -- the world's first since the end of World War II. The IMF also expects the global economy to growth 4.3% in 2011.

What's more, the IMF also raised its 2010 GDP growth forecast for the United States to 2.7%, up from the earlier 2.6% estimate. The U.S. economy contracted 0.3% in 2009, using the IMF's methodology and data. Meanwhile, the developed world is expected to growth 2.1%, in 2010, after an -0.7% contraction in 2009.

China's economy is expected to grow 10.0% in 2010, leading a 6.0% emerging market rebound. The IMF sees India growing 7.7%; Russia, 3.6%; Brazil, 4.7%; Mexico, 4.0%.

It's been mostly doom-and-gloom on Wall Street. But somehow IBM (NYSE: IBM) has found a magic formula for success.

In fiscal Q4, IBM posted a 10% increase in revenues to $28.9 billion, with net income up 12% to $3.95 billion, or $2.80 per share. What's more, the company expects the good times to continue – with full-year earnings per share growth of 15%. (See the full transcript of the company's earnings conference call with investors).

What's going on? Well, a key is IBM's massive global footprint as well as extensive offerings. For example, the company has been aggressively buying software companies, such as Cognos. These deals not only improve growth rates but also margins.

Something else: Keep in mind that a variety of developing nations are investing large sums in their infrastructures. And, isn't IBM a good partner for this?

Actually, it's not just countries like China and India that are seeing substantial growth. There are other hot spots, such as Malaysia, Poland, South Africa, Ecuador, the Czech Republic, and so on.

Of the 170 countries that IBM does business with, there are 50 that are experiencing growth rates in excess of 10%. Interestingly enough, IBM is calling this the "Gold Rush of the 21st century."

In other words, it looks like IBM's growth is more than just a short-term blip.

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates DealProfiles.com.

China increased benchmark interest rates for the sixth time this year Thursday, the Chinese government announced, in the government's latest attempt to slow surging growth and rising inflation in the world's second-largest economy, Reuters reported.

The People's Bank of China increased its benchmark one-year deposit rate by roughly one-quarter percentage point, or 27 basis points, to 4.14%, and also raised the one-year lending rate about one-fifth percentage point, or 18 basis points, to 7.47%. The central bank's last interest rate increase occurred in September, Reuters reported.

Earlier this year, China's monetary officials shifted their monetary bias from "prudent" to "tight' to slow the nation's double-digit GDP growth economy.

Economic boom

China's GDP has grown more than 10% for more than four years, serving as a centerpoint for not only emerging market development in Asia, but also as an engine for global growth. Low-cost labor and the nation's weak currency, the yuan (which is fixed at an artificially low rate, a trading band, by the Chinese government), have fueled an export boom and a large trade surplus. That surplus has led to many benefits for the world's most populous nation, including rising real incomes, an expanded middle class and historic economic development, but has also stoked inflation.

Further, monetary and industrial officials in the world's other major economic regions in the United States and Europe have urged Chinese officials to slow the nation's economy -- and implement other reforms -- to take price pressure off commodities (such as oil) and resources.