A slowdown in China’s economy is perceived as being the biggest risk to Asia’s economic growth, a survey of powerbrokers in the region released yesterday said.
While there were also worries about the weakness in the European and US economies, the survey by the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) think tank said there was more concern over the effects of a slowdown in China.
“In terms of risks to growth, regional opinion leaders were more worried about the impact of a slowdown in China than they were for slowdowns in Europe and the US, albeit by a slight margin,” it said.
Results of the survey — which included business executives, senior government officials and academics — were released in the Russian city of Vladivostok ahead of this weekend’s APEC leaders’ summit.
Donald Campbell, co-chair of the PECC, said the survey results emphasized China’s growing importance as global economy driver.
“If you take 10 years ago in terms of economic output, the Asia Pacific region was about 20 percent. Now it’s 35 percent, it’s the fastest-growing ... and it’s driven by China,” Campbell said.
“China is becoming very, very critical in terms of the world economy and growth so you can see the concern over any diminution in growth,” he added.
China’s insatiable appetite for raw materials and other goods has kept the factories of other Asian countries humming despite slower exports to the US and Europe following the 2008 financial crisis.
China is the largest trading partner of the 10-member ASEAN grouping, but a raft of recent data has shown the world’s second biggest economy is slowing.
China’s manufacturing activity fell to its lowest level in more than three years last month, according to a closely watched survey compiled by British banking giant HSBC.
This came after the Asian giant’s economic growth slowed to 7.6 percent in the second quarter, the worst performance in three years and the sixth straight quarter of slower growth.
According to the PECC survey, 56 percent of respondents “are gearing themselves for weaker economic performance from China over the next 12 months,” up from 36 percent in the previous poll last year.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS