Europe shares follow Asia higher on China growth relief

LONDON (Reuters) - Shares in Europe and Asia rose on Tuesday and the dollar strengthened after China said its economy had not slowed as much as many in markets had feared.

However, the International Monetary Fund cut its forecast for global growth in 2015 by three-tenths of a percent to 3.5 percent and called on governments and central banks to pursue accommodative monetary policies and reforms.

Oil prices fell further, hit by the prospects of weaker demand in China, the world's second largest economy. But lower oil and rising hopes for more stimulus from the European Central Bank later this week helped lift stocks around the world.

China grew 7.4 percent in 2014, just missing official forecasts of 7.5 percent, and its slowest growth in 24 years. But fourth-quarter expansion held steady at 7.3 percent, down on the previous three months but marginally better than expected.

"Growth in the last quarter of 2014 shows some nice resilience, 7.3 percent vs expectations of 7.2 percent, which shows that our scenario of a soft landing is quite close to reality," said John Plassard, senior equity sales trader at Mirabaud Securities in Geneva.

A slew of Chinese data, which also showed factory output and retail sales beating forecasts in December, lifted Asian shares.

The Shanghai Composite index rose 1.85 percent and the CSI300 closed up 1.22 percent. Japan's Nikkei 225 index saw its biggest one-day gain in a month, ending up 2.1 percent. MSCI's main index for Asian shares, excluding Japan