BASEL (AFP) - Leading central bankers believe economic growth is advancing on a "very positive" path, European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet said after they met on Monday.

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"At the global level, the sentiment is that growth continues to be very positive, and with a number of corrections," he told journalists after the group of central bankers held their regular meeting at the Bank for International Settlements.

Speaking on their behalf, Trichet said global economic growth was regarded as "robust" with a concrete revival in international trade.

"We see the phasing out of non-conventional measures that have been taken by a very large number of central banks," he added.

Trichet said the gradual phase-out allowed central bankers "to accompany the fact that the market is improving" but "without influencing the market sentiment and without giving a signal that we are changing monetary policy."

Nearly three months ago the influential group of central bankers had signalled an upbeat beginning to 2010, as emerging economies drove the global recovery.

Major central banks in Europe and the United States drastically pared back interest rates to their lowest levels over the past 18 months in response to the global economic and financial crisis.

Some, notably the Bank of England, the ECB, Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank had also resorted to "unconvential measures" last year by intervening in money markets or purchasing bonds to stimulate spending and prop up credit.

Last week Sweden’s central bank governor Stefan Ingves said that “the economic recovery is now resting on more solid ground” and echoed the Riksbank’s intentions to hike its key interest rate this summer.

Sweden's economy last year suffered its largest annual setback in more than half a century as gross domestic product dropped 4.9 percent compared to 2008, which is the largest annual fall since World War II.