Taiwan, Singapore GDP May Shrink by a Tenth in 2009, CLSA Says
Taiwan, Singapore GDP May Shrink by a Tenth in 2009, CLSA Says
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By Shamim Adam
Feb. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Taiwan and Singapore may see their economies shrink by a tenth this year as Asia’s export-dependent nations trade less with each other, according to CLSA Asia- Pacific Markets.
Taiwan’s gross domestic product will probably decline 11 percent and Singapore’s economy will contract 10 percent, according to a CLSA report published today. South Korea’s GDP will drop about 7 percent, the report said.
“In a number of countries, the wheels have fallen off the primary driver of Asian growth: exports,” the CLSA report said. “Intraregional trade has slowed more aggressively than has extra regional.”
Asia’s export-driven economies are slowing as demand for their products diminishes amid recessions in the U.S., Japan and Europe. Exports account for about 32 percent of Asia’s GDP, according to the World Bank.
The International Monetary Fund yesterday slashed its 2009 growth forecast for Asia to 2.7 percent from 4.9 percent, and Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said a “worse outcome cannot be ruled out.”
Developing Asia, which excludes Japan, Australia and New Zealand, will probably expand 5.5 percent this year, the slowest pace since 1998, the IMF said in an update of its World Economic Outlook report last week.
China will expand 5.5 percent this year, while India’s economy will grow 5 percent, CLSA said.
Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand will see GDP contractions of 5 percent this year, while the Philippines and Indonesia will expand less than 1 percent in the same period, the report said.
“The exceptional weakness of indicators at the end of last year and the evidence so far that any rebound will be muted makes for extremely weak Asian growth forecasts,” CLSA said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Shamim Adam in Singapore at sadam2@bloomberg.net
赖初霄
Ho Ching will step down
SINGAPORE, Feb 6 (Reuters) - Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL] said on Friday its chief executive Ho Ching will step down and be replaced by former BHP Billiton CEO Chip Goodyear on Oct. 1.Ho Ching, wife of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, joined Temasek as a director in January 2002 and has been CEO since January 2004."The team has already embarked on a different stance since mid-2007, and has begun to review its long-term plans under different scenarios prompted by the economic downturn," Chairman S. Dhanabalan said at a media briefing."If we are to bring in new leadership, it would be just as good a time as any to involve a new leader in this review."Goodyear, 51, stepped down as CEO of BHP Billiton in January 2007. He joined Temasek's board on Sunday.Temasek, which had S$185 billion ($123.2 billion) in assets as at March 2008, has been hit hard due to its 40 percent exposure to banks that have slumped in value due to the global financial crisis.The sovereign wealth fund's key investments include 28 percent of DBS Group (DBSM.SI), just under a fifth of Standard Chartered Bank (STAN.L) and about 3.8 percent of Bank of America (BoA) (BAC.N) following BoA's takeover of Merrill Lynch.Temasek's $5 billion plus investment in Merrill alone has resulted in a loss of more than $2 billion. (Reporting by Kevin Lim and Saeed Azhar, Editing by Ian Geoghegan)