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ECONOMIC MELTDOWN

Asian govts reverse gear

Asia News Network
Heads of governments across Asia are scrambling to tackle the rampage of recession. With unemployment rising by the millions, Asian central banks are slashing interest rates in an effort to find ways of survival.
Export-driven economics arc now most venerable to the crisis, and governments are in a mad rush to inject stimulus packages into die economics.
Asia News Network continues to focus on how each country combats the recession in its own way.
| China m
The Chinese government has announced a 4 trillion-yuan (US$586 billion) fiscal stimulus package to spur domestic demand and boost the slowing economy until 2010.
All provincial and municipal governments have also come up with their own stimulus packages, amounting to no less than 20 trillion yuan.
China's economic growth has been slowing for five consecutive quarters. It dipped to 9 percent in die third quarter of 2008, the first growth rate below double digits in five years.
Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank governor, said the economy could slow down furtherfrom 9.9 percent in the first three quarters of 2008 to between 8 and 9 percent in 2009.
China reported an unexpectedly sharp 17.5 percent drop in January exports, the steepest decline since records began in 1993.
Due to weak demand for exports, several companies have closed shop in China, rendering millions of workers jobless. The government allocated 100 billion yuan for investment in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 20 billion yuan for reconstruction projects this year. These are expected to trigger an overall investment of up to 400 billion yuan.
China's year-on-year GDP growth weakened to 9 percent for 2008 from 13 percent in 2007.
| India □t
India’s economy began 2008 in robust fashion but ended on a note of mixed sentiment with the global meltdown casting an inevitable shadow.
New Delhi has lowered its economic growth target for the current fiscal year (April 2008-March 2009) to 6.8 percent from thepn-. hi^7 7pern •
Exports fell in October for the first time in seven years. Industrial production, which was among the main drivers of the economy, fell 0.4 percent. The rupee fell perilously close to 50 to a dollar in
November, an all-time low. And, as per the government's own admission, some 65,000 jobs were lost between August and October.
Two key sectors, agriculture and industry, were affected by the global economic slowdown. This will have a serious effect on India's overall growth, says the National Council of Applied Economics Research, an economic think-tank.
India has unveiled a 300-billion rupee (US$6 billion) package to bail out the corporate sector.
tj Thailand —
Like much of export dependent Asia, Thailand is sutienng from a collapse in demand from the United States and Europethe top buyers of Asian goodsas they slip deeper into recession.
Thailand's exports fell 15.7 percent in December from a year earlier, after a 17.7 percent drop in November.
Bank of Thailand (BOT) deputy governor AtchanaWaiquamdee believes the Kingdom will experience a quarterly contraction but
not a recession like other countries.
She also believes th is year's economy will even show continued growth, albeit at a very slow pace.
The BOT has revised the economic growth target this year to 0-2 percent, the lowest since 1988, citing the impact of the global credit crisis on exports.
BOT's assistant governor Duangmance Vongpradhip projected the country could contract for three consecutive quarters, beginninglast year's fourth quarter.
"Thai economic growth could be lower than zero percent but there is a very low prob-abilityof5.5 percent," said Duangmance.
The new Abhisit Vejjajiva government has introduced two scries of economic stimulus packages, with 25 measures, aimed to restore confidence, boost income, and improve quality of life and security.
The government's first package with 18 measures has earmarked 116.7 billion baht (US$3.3 billion) for social welfare and infrastructure. It is providing 2,000 baht for each Thai earning less than 15,000 baht. The seven measures in the second package are aimed at bolstering the property sector, small and medium-sized enterprises, venture capital and debt restructuring.
H Malaysia
The Malaysian government has released a 7-billion ringgit (US$1.9 billion) stimulus package to stimulate the faltering economy.
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib TUn Razak has promised a second stimulus package.
Malaysian Employers Federation Executive Director Shamsuddin Bardan said more than 10,000 Malaysians had lost their jobs since January 1.
He said more were expected to lose their jobs in the days ahead as companies, partic- / ularly in the manufacturing sector, strug- T gled to stay afloat.
Shamsuddin said the economic downturn this time was much worse than the one in 1997 because it was more widespread globally.
Malaysia has set an earlier target of a 3.5 percent growth this year but is likely to revise the target downwards due to the continuing uncertain outlook.
Several economists and government officials said the worse-than-expected trade figures and slumping industrial production and export figures indicate the government will have little choice but to hope for growth . to be between 1 percent and 2 percent
In the last three months of 2008,1.5 million lost their jobs as economic output during October. No- 1 I Dm • ’ ' shrank by 6 percent compared with the same period in 2007.
(Our final report will cover five other Asian countries)