The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is "very positive" that the U.S. Federal Reserve can reduce its stimulus program and maintain economic growth, the deputy managing director told CNBC at the World Economic Forum.
"We think the Fed will be able to do the job because the Fed laid the policy structure [down] clearly and is doing a very good job at communicating it," Min Zhu told CNBC in Davos, Switzerland where the annual meeting of global economists and leaders is taking place this week.
His comments come after the IMF raised its global growth forecast to 3.7 percent this year, up from a forecast of 3.6 percent growth that it last made in October. It forecast that the U.S. would see 2.8 percent growth in 2014, compared to 1.9 percent in 2013.
(Read more: IMF upgrades world growth forecast to 3.7% in 2014)
He said the U.S. had to use the opportunity afforded by fiscal space to ensure that growth would continue into 2015 but Zhu's bullish comments on the U.S. economy were echoed by other business leaders.
Jacob Frenkel, the chairman of JPMorgan Chase International and former governor of the Bank of Israel, said the U.S. economy was clearly improved.
"It is important to remember that when we were standing here a year ago, the stars were not aligned," he told CNBC at Davos on Wednesday. Frenkel added that the U.S. was "not completely out of the woods," however, noting that part of the decline in the unemployment rate was due to fall in labor force participation.
Another influential economist said the "stars are aligning for the U.S. economy."
"I'm more optimistic than the consensus. I think 3 percent growth for the U.S. in 2014 is a slam dunk," Barry Eichengreen, professor of Economics at the University of California told CNBC in Davos on Wednesday. "The prospects for the U.S. are remarkably good and that's one bit of very good news for the world economy."
His comments come after U.S. job growth weakened to just 74,000 in December.
Eichengreen said he was bullish because of a lower fiscal drag, richer households, and the fact that capital spending which has lagged in the past, now needs to catch up.
"[There's] a growth-friendly Fed chair and no increase in Fed policy rates until the end of 2014 or even 2015," he added.
Eichengreen said that the "only thing that could go wrong is on the political front" but he believed the U.S. would not see another government shutdown or debt ceiling debacle like the one last Fall when Democrats and Republicans failed to agree on raising the U.S. borrowing limit.
Although the professor was confident over the U.S. economy, he was not so sanguine about the prospects for Europe, saying that the crisis could return although the trigger was unknown.
"I think the markets have swung from one extreme where they were overly-pessimistic about Europe to now when they're euphoric. European spreads have compressed beyond all reason but the euro zone crisis has not been resolved."
- CNBC's Katy Barnato contributed reporting to this story. By CNBC's Holly Ellyatt, follow her on Twitter @HollyEllyatt
