East Asian economy shows a downward trend due to the decreasing European demand – Part 1

East Asian market is in the midst of the economic ordeal that has devoured the whole world of late. The European Sovereign Debt situation has aggravated the already aching global economy that is still living through the aftermaths of 2008 financial crisis. The East Asian countries were hit severely by the calamity, as their exports continue to plummet.

The Chinese exports took a huge fall during the second half of calendar year 2011. Other East Asian countries showed the same in their annual reports.

Singapore, one of the fastest growing economies in the region, has shown a downward trend during 2011. Their exports fell 4.9 percent during the year. State economists expect the turmoil to continue this term. In his New Year’s speech, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong repeated the message of a mere 1 to 3% growth in exports, which according to experts is an optimistic estimate at best.

Singaporean economy is mainly export-oriented and some of their major buyers reside in Europe. Loong blamed the global economy in general and the European crisis in particular for the economic slowdown.

Hong Kong’s financial reports tell the same story. The tiny region showed a negligible growth rate of 3 percent, down from an estimated 5 percent. The slowdown is expected to continue this year as well, with gloomy estimates ranging from HSBC’s prediction of 3.3 percent to JP Morgan’s estimation of 1.5 percent.

Japan follows the suit, although their national economy started to show promising signs during the September quarter. Despite the March 11 earthquake, Japan started to gain momentum in global exports but the European catastrophe hit the country late in the third calendar quarter.

The Japanese well-greased economy is actually dependent on Thailand and South Korea for electronic, plastic and rubber parts, particularly in the automobile industry; one of the reasons why its economy stumbled in 2011.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Jan 9 2012. Filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry