India, China slowdown pulls down Asia
Friday October 12, 2012 11:03:18 AM,
Arun Kumar,
IANS
|
|
|
Washington: Weaker
momentum in Asia's growth engines, China and India, coupled with
setbacks in the recovery in advanced economies, has slowed down
growth in the region, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said
Friday.
For Asia as a whole, GDP growth fell to its lowest rate since the
2008 global financial crisis during the first half of 2012
averaging 5.50 percent though still well above the global average,
it said.
"External headwinds played a major role, as the recovery in
advanced economies suffered setbacks," IMF said in its October
update of the Asia and Pacific Regional Economic Outlook released
during the World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings in Tokyo.
"Weaker momentum in China and India also weighed on regional
economies," it said with domestic factors contributing to the
slowdown in both countries.
While in the case of India, weakening investor sentiment adding to
supply constraints contributed to the slowdown, in China it was
due to what IMF called "deliberate efforts to engineer a soft
landing."
Asia's growth is unlikely to pick up in the second half of 2012 as
was expected in the April 2012 regional outlook, given the recent
deterioration of a broad range of indicators encompassing activity
variables from industrial Asia, the large emerging Asia growth
leaders, and the smaller export-dependent economies, IMF said.
Overall, after having slowed in 2011, Asia's growth is forecast to
moderate further in 2012 to 5 percent, about 2 percentage points
below 2011 and IMF April 2012 forecast.
That said, Asia will remain the global growth leader, expanding
over 2 percentage points faster than the world average, IMF said.
A modest growth pickup to about 6 percent in 2013 could result
mostly from strengthening external demand-itself helped by the
recent actions taken by leading central banks- with accommodative
macroeconomic policy stances across the region also playing a
role, it said.
While relatively strong economic and policy fundamentals have
helped buffer Asian economies against adverse financial market
spillovers, aggressive deleveraging by euro area banks and flight
of capital to traditional safe havens could also severely disrupt
Asian financial systems.
Policymakers need to support stable noninflationary growth,
maintain financial stability, and lay the foundations for
sustained and shared prosperity over the medium term, IMF said.
But it acknowledged that some countries including India still-high
inflation may limit the room for policy manoeuvre.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
|
Home |
Top of the Page
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
I |
|
|
More Headlines |
Setback for riot victims, Britain ends
no contact with Modi policy |
New policy should not make medicines costly: SC |
Technopark firm launches platform for interactive magazines |
Fond of sharing porn online, MMS? Get ready
to land in jail |
Royal Enfield launches Thunderbird 500 |
Decision on new drug pricing policy by mid-November |
Assocham to urge Mamata to support FDI in
retail |
eToilet manufacturer ties up with IISc |
China to become second-wealthiest nation in
five years |
Karnataka holds on to Belgaum with second secretariat |
|
Top Stories |
New policy should not make medicines costly: SC
Protecting the people's interest, the Supreme Court Thursday told
the government that medicines should continue to be available at
reasonable prices even after
»
Decision on new drug pricing policy by mid-November
US pushing India to hike cancer drug price
|
|
Most Read |

Setback for riot victims, Britain ends
no contact with Modi policy
In a severe blow to the victims of the 2002 Gujarat riots who are
fighting for justice since more than a decade, Britain has ended
its official no-contact policy with Gujarat after the 2002 riots
and will »
|
Fond of sharing porn online, MMS? Get ready
to land in jail
Sharing
porn or obscene videos online or through multimedia messaging
services (MMS) may soon attract a prison term up to seven years
and a maximum fine of Rs.500,000, the government proposed
Thursday. These stringent punishments are part of the amendments
proposed
»
|
|
News Pick |
Salafists: New obsession of the West?
So, it was with this in mind I read Husain’s blog post recently on
the CFR website about how he plunged into the lion’s den in search
of Salafists. He didn’t disappoint. Right off the bat, Husain
tells us that Salafism and Wahabism are the most “dangerous,
destructive strain of thought.” So he wasn’t looking for my
father’s
»
|
Relax, don't do last minute studies before
CAT, say experts
Those
taking the Common Admission Test (CAT) for entry to various
business schools in the country Oct 11-Nov 6 are advised to relax
and not indulge in too much last-minute studies, say experts. The
CAT is held every year »
|
Karnataka holds on to Belgaum with second secretariat
By getting President Pranab Mukherjee to unveil Karnatakas second
state secretariat Suvarna Soudha in this northern city Thursday,
the government has sought to consolidate its stranglehold on the »
|
Congress
govt implicating Muslims in cooked up terror plots: BJP Chief
Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) party chief Nitin Gadkari accused the
Congress of implicating Muslim youth in false terror cases and
blamed
»
'Investigating Agencies are biased against Muslims'
Compensation, certificates to 61 Muslim youths
tortured in blast case
|
|
Picture of the Day |
 |
Prime
Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh presenting the trophy for the best
branch of CBI to M.S. Khan, SP, CBI, ACB, Bhubaneswar at the
19th Conference of CBI and State Anti-Corruption Bureaux, in
New Delhi on October 10, 2012. |
|
|
|
|