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November / December Asia
China's GDP up 8.2%
China’s economy grew 8.2 percent year on-year to 6.21 trillion yuan (748 billion dollars) in the first three quarters and is expected to maintain a similar rate well into next year, the government said recently.
Third quarter growth also came in at 8.2 percent, slightly down from the 8.3 percent in the second quarter but higher than the first quarter’s growth of 8.1 percent. "The quality of overall economic performance is good and we believe that we will maintain moderate growth through the fourth quarter and into the next year," Ye Zhen, spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics, said.
The growth rate for the entire year would easily surpass last year’s rate of 7.1 percent and beat the government’s year 2000 target of seven percent, he said. "We are seeing respectable growth with no inflation. China was charactrised by sharp boom and bust cycles but now there is much less volatility," said Gilbert Choi, head of China research at Dresdner Kleinwort Benson Securities.
China continued to post strong growth in exports as well as foreign investment during the first three quarters of the year, Ye said, confirming figures announced by the ministry for foreign trade and economic cooperation.
Export totalled 182.3 billion dollars from January to the end of September, an increase of 33.1 percent on the same period last year. This growth rate represented a slight decrease on the 38.3 percent recorded for the first six months of the year. Imports reached 163.1 billion dollars, a rise of 38.7 percent, leaving China with a trade surplus of 19.2 billion dollars.
China’s strong trade growth is largely due to a relatively dismal export performance in 1999, when most Asian economies were hamstrung by the financial crisis the struck the region in mid-1997.
China eliminated absolute poverty
China announced recently that it had eliminated "absolute poverty" but admitted hundreds of millions still faced grim living conditions.
Under Beijing’s definitions that means almost none across the vast country with a population of 1.13 billion had an annual income of less than 635 yuan (77 dollars).
"At present, except for some 26 million disabled people or those living in extremely bad natural environment areas, we have succeeded in eliminating absolute poverty in the country", said Gao Hongbin, a leading poverty alleviation official, quoted by Xinhua news agency.
Only three percent of the rural population remained impoverished or living below the 635 yuan standard, making China’s rural poverty rate the lowest among develong nations, Gao said.
Japan's GDP growth to surpass govt. target
Japan’s economic growth rate for the year will likely surpass the government target of one percent, Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa said recently.
"In the light of the growth rate for April-June, the government’s one-percent target is too low," he told a regular news conference. "Forecasts by private research firms are higher than that".
Japan’s gross domestic product (GDP) rose 1.0 percent in the three months to June from the previous quarter, when it had expand by a robust 2.5 percent.
The government has set its GDP growth target at 1.0 percent for the full financial year to next March.
Miyazawa’s assessment was more optimistic than remarks made by Economic Planning Agency (EPA) director general Taichi Sakaiya in mid- September.
Pointing to soaring oil prices, Sakaiya said he expected the growth to flag later this year.
Japan keeps caustious outlook on economy
Japan maintained its cautious view on the economy recently, saying the world’s second largest economy has yet to make full recovery from a decade long depression due to comatose consumer spending.
"The economy has yet to get out of its severe situation but activity continues to improve modestly," The Economic Planning Agency said in its monthly report.
"Movements toward a self-sustained recovery are gradually continuing, mainly in the corporate sector," the agency’s core assessment on the economy said in wording unchanged from the September report.
While acknowledging an improvement in corporate earnings, the government stopped short of declaring that the Japanese economy has made a full recovery due to continuing concern over depressed consumer spending.
"As consumer spending, which accounts for 60 percent of the nation’s GDP, continues to lag the recovery (of the corporate sector), we are unable to conclude the self sustained recovery is coming closer", said Haruhito Arai, an economist at the agency’s research bureau.
Singaporeans gloomy despite bright economic figures
Singapore’s official economic statistics could hardly be better heading for 9.0 percent annual growth and unemployment at its lowest level in two years yet Singaporeans are growing despondent.
Clouding the outlook are a weakening stock market, declining export growth and rising oil prices.
The dampening sentiment is reflected in the latest Straits Times quarterly consumer confidence survey which has plunged to its lowest level in 17 months.
Most people surveyed thought everything was going up in price while their job prospects and financial position would go down in the next three months.
Figures published recently showed 59 percent of consumers were bracing for higher prices, up from 50 percent three months ago.
The number expecting the economy to improve slumped from 54 percent in June to 37 percent, while only 18 percent saw themselves being financially better off in the next three months.
Vietnam launches clean-up
The Vietnamese government has launched a four-year project to tackle the chronic pollution problems of the sprawling commercial capital of Ho Chi Minh city, it was reported recently.
The project, supported with 1.57 million dollars of Norwegian aid, will provide municipal authorities with technical assistance to draw up a comprehensive plan for the disposal of household, industrial and medical waste, the city’s Saigon Giai Phone daily said.
A system will also be established to continuously monitor its air quality.
Pollution has become a mounting problem with the huge growth of Vietnam’s big cities in recent years.
Only around a quarter of the 49,300 tonnes of solid wastes Vietnam produces every day is currently collected, leaving the remaining 70 to 80 percent untreated, according to environment ministry figures.
Industry produces 54.8 percent of the total waste, with households accounting for the lion’s share of the rest, according to the statistics, carried by the official VNA news agency.
South Korea posts $ 1.82 B surplus in Sept.
Robust exports helped South Korea post a 1.82 billion dollar current account surplus in September, up from 938 million dollars in August, the Bank of Korea said.
The central bank said strong exports were led by semiconductors and telecommunications equipment.
Kim Sung-Hwan, an official at the bank’s statistical office, also attributed the rise to less overseas travels by locals and smaller royalty payments.
The accumulated current account surplus in the past nine months to September was 7.73 billion dollars, down from 18.8 billion dollars a year earlier, as imports rose because of the recovering economy.
But the capital account turned to a deficit of 901 million dollars in September from a 193 million dollar surplus in August, resulting in a 13.08 billion dollar surplus for the first nine months.
