Asia defies forecasts and keeps growing during crisis

While Greece is in danger of default, Dubai still smarting from corporate collapse and 9.7 per cent of the US workforce is out of a job. In much of Asia, the question on people's lips is: crisis, what crisis?

Malaysia became the latest Asian country to report unexpectedly strong growth in gross domestic product for the fourth quarter of 2009. At the moment there gross domestic product rose with a 4.5 per cent over the same period a year earlier.
Hong Kong also beat forecasts when it announced a 2.3 per cent increase over the previous quarter. Taiwan announced a rise of 9.2 per cent from a year ago and Thailand saw comparable growth of 5.8 per cent.

The prime minister of Malaysia said the economy could expand by up to 5 per cent, which is a lot considering the rest of the world is in a crisis.
Economists said the recovery was not going to lead to rises in interest rates, even though several central bank governors have indicated moves to normalise monetary policy soon.

It is a good thing that the economy in Asia is recovering and growing. Governments in Asia pumped billions of dollars into their economies in response to the 2008-09 financial crisis. That leaves the problem of the downside when governments turn off the taps. So time will tell if the growth keeps going on or if the crisis will hit again.

Thibaut Delsoir

Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f5e20ab2-21ae-11df-acf4-00144feab49a.html