Asian economies in trouble

Dire growth data fuel Asian fears

Weak growth data from India and Malaysia on Friday provided fresh evidence of the deepening impact of the global recession on developing Asia.

Japan’s manufacturing output suffered a record 10 per cent month-on-month drop in January. New job offers in Japan also plummeted 18 per cent to complete an abysmal set of recent figures from the world’s second-largest economy, including a record 45.7 per cent fall in exports in January.

The collapse in Asian exports over the fourth quarter was “nothing short of breath-taking”, said Frederic Neumann, Asia chief economist at HSBC. “Economic models and experience suggest that financial turmoil tends to transmit far more gradually into the real economy than has occurred this time around. In fact, the severity and rapidity of the fall in output exceeds anything we have ever seen before.”