Asia is poised for another year of solid growth this year even if the impact of the killer earthquake and tsunami on Japan remains unclear, Standard and Poor’s said yesterday.
“We expect the region to record another year of solid growth in 2011 after 2010 proved that Asia is emerging from the [global financial] crisis in a strong position, even as the economic picture for Japan following the recent earthquake remains less clear,” senior regional analyst Tom Schiller said.
“But growth presents a unique set of challenges for policymakers, officials and investors across the Asia-Pacific region,” he said.
Photo: Reuters
However, growth for the region, with the exception of Australia and New Zealand, is expected to moderate slightly from last year because of ongoing worries over the US and eurozone economies, Standard and Poor’s said.
Inflationary pressure is a key concern for the region, which faces the prospect of tighter monetary policies as authorities seek to temper price rises, it said in its twice-yearly regional outlook.
“Rising prices stem in part from rapid growth and the easy credit conditions that the region’s governments put in place to support their economies during the global financial crisis,” the credit ratings firm said. “We expect the region’s central banks to continue to tighten monetary policy this year.”
That means central banks will raise interest rates to fight inflation.
Standard and Poor’s also said regional central banks may also consider further capital control measures and other actions to prevent risky assets bubbles.
Powerhouse China is projected to grow between 9.1 and 9.6 percent this year, lower than last year’s 10.3 percent, and this is expected to impact the rest of the region, Standard and Poor’s said.
“Chinese authorities are adopting measures to rein in expansionary monetary policy to help combat rising inflation, escalating asset prices and higher wage inflation,” it added. “We expect these tightening measures are likely to prune money supply and credit growth in 2011. Slowing growth in China is likely to drag on growth around the region, in our view, with many nations beginning to post softer growth numbers.”
Japan, which is struggling to cope with the devastation wrought by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on Friday that triggered a crisis at a nuclear power station, is seen as growing between 1.3 and 1.8 percent.
The world’s third-largest economy expanded 4 percent last year.
South Korea’s economy is projected to grow between 4.3 and 4.8 percent from 6.1 percent last year.
Within Southeast Asia, Singapore’s growth is to moderate sharply to between 4.5 and 5.0 percent from 14.5 percent last year, Malaysia is seen expanding between 4.8 and 5.3 percent and Indonesia to grow between 5.9 and 6.4 percent from 6.1 percent.
The Philippines is expected to grow between 5.1 and 5.6 percent this year from 7.3 percent and Thailand’s economy will ease to between 4 and 4.5 percent from 7.8 percent.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said its materials management head, Vanessa Lee (李文如), had tendered her resignation for personal reasons. The personnel adjustment takes effect tomorrow, TSMC said in a statement. The latest development came one month after Lee reportedly took leave from the middle of last month. Cliff Hou (侯永清), senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer, is to concurrently take on the role of head of the materials management division, which has been under his supervision, TSMC said. Lee, who joined TSMC in 2022, was appointed senior director of materials management and
Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登精密), the sole extreme ultraviolet pod supplier to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電), yesterday said it has trimmed its revenue growth target for this year as US tariffs are likely to depress customer demand and weigh on the whole supply chain. Gudeng’s remarks came after the US on Monday notified 14 countries, including Japan and South Korea, of new tariff rates that are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Taiwan is still negotiating for a rate lower than the 32 percent “reciprocal” tariffs announced by the US in April, which it later postponed to today. The
MAJOR CONTRIBUTOR: Revenue from AI servers made up more than 50 percent of Wistron’s total server revenue in the second quarter, the company said Wistron Corp (緯創) on Tuesday reported a 135.6 percent year-on-year surge in revenue for last month, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers, with the momentum expected to extend into the third quarter. Revenue last month reached NT$209.18 billion (US$7.2 billion), a record high for June, bringing second-quarter revenue to NT$551.29 billion, a 129.47 percent annual increase, the company said. Revenue in the first half of the year totaled NT$897.77 billion, up 87.36 percent from a year earlier and also a record high for the period, it said. The company remains cautiously optimistic about AI server shipments in the third quarter,
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Thursday met with US President Donald Trump at the White House, days before a planned trip to China by the head of the world’s most valuable chipmaker, people familiar with the matter said. Details of what the two men discussed were not immediately available, and the people familiar with the meeting declined to elaborate on the agenda. Spokespeople for the White House had no immediate comment. Nvidia declined to comment. Nvidia’s CEO has been vocal about the need for US companies to access the world’s largest semiconductor market and is a frequent visitor to China.
RSS