Economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region, excluding China, will plunge to 1 percent to 2 percent this year because of a global slowdown and in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the US, the IMF said yesterday at a meeting in Hong Kong.
Speaking at the World Eco-nomic Forum's three-day East Asia Economic Summit, International Monetary Fund deputy managing director Shigemitsu Sugisaki added that the IMF had US$50 billion available to help countries cope with the slowdown.
"Our estimate is, that excluding China, growth in the region is forecast to fall from about 6.5 percent last year down to 1 percent to 2 percent this year, so something like a 5 percentage point decline. That's huge," he told delegates attending the forum.
However, the region would only see a slight recovery in economic growth to 2 percent to 3 percent in next year, he said.
The weakest growth would be seen in Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong while the slowdown in other less open nations, namely Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia was expected to be less pronounced.
"China is the exception in that it will continue to grow around seven percent," he said.
Sugisaki said although there was limited scope for macro-economic policy action in Japan, it "must now resume its leadership role in Asia."
Japan could achieve this through decisive action to reform the banking and corporate sectors.
"Resolving the debt issues is really the only way in which to revive the long-term growth prospects," he said.
Although the recovery of East Asian economies was dependent on the global recovery, it did not mean regional countries did not need to take any action themselves, he said.
"[On the] macro-economic policy front, those with low inflation and a flexible exchange rate -- Singapore, Thailand and Korea -- have more scope to ease monetary policy than those with a fixed exchanged rate."
He called on governments around the region to refrain from the temptation of abandoning structural reform program in light of the economic slowdown.
"In an environment where markets have a low tolerance for weak markets, structural reforms will serve to build confidence and will help the countries in this region distinguish themselves from other emerging markets," he said.
He said the IMF had stepped up its surveillance activities on countries around the region and "we are also ready to give more financial assistance to countries that are trying implement good policies in the more difficult circumstances.
"I can report to you the IMF has comfortable resources to do so. The size of the resources available for further assistance is in the order of US$50 billion in the near term.
"Hopefully, these resources can be used to prevent crisis rather than to manage crisis," he said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS