Oct. 23--3M Co. is looking less to its American back yard to power out of this recession than to improved sales in economies around the world, including benefits from a huge stimulus plan from the Chinese government.

Growth in Asia helped persuade the Maplewood-based manufacturer Thursday to raise its earnings and revenue estimates for the full year, but CEO George Buckley cautioned that high unemployment in the United States is still a roadblock to a robust recovery.

3M exceeded Wall Street's expectations in the third quarter, producing earnings per share of $1.35 compared with a $1.17 consensus estimate from analysts.

"The downturn has been a vicious lesson for all of us," Buckley said. In the third quarter, 3M's revenue dropped by 5.6 percent to $6.2 billion.

But Buckley and Patrick Campbell, chief financial officer, emphasized how the company is substantially stronger than in the first half of the year, when sales plunged by double-digit percentages.

Buckley added that he was pleasantly surprised that 3M boosted its overall sales in the third quarter by about $500 million when compared with the second quarter.

Buckley, who was skeptical of a U.S. stimulus package when it was being debated by Congress, said Thursday that very little stimulus money had filtered into the U.S. economy. However, he said, "We did see measurable impacts from stimulus money in China."

Richard Cooper, a Harvard economist, was in China in late 2008 shortly after a major stimulus plan was announced there. Before the downturn, Cooper said, China placed some big infrastructure projects on hold, because leaders were worried the economy was "overheating" or growing too rapidly.

Once the global recession hit, he said, the Chinese were able to move quickly to fund projects already planned. "In the first quarter of this year, bank credit in China just exploded," Cooper said.

The Chinese have been building roads, bridges and other public projects, and the infrastructure spending promoted strong growth in the third quarter, said Scott Anderson, a senior economist with Wells Fargo and Co.

In the United States, he said, much of the $787 billion stimulus package is yet to be spent. However, he takes a different view from Buckley. "Basically, without the stimulus package, the U.S. would still be in recession," Anderson said.

A flu fighter

3M has been a leader in making products to fight the spread of H1N1 flu, with sale of respiratory masks adding $80 million to the company's revenue in the third quarter.