Asian Development Bank pares back growth estimates for Asia
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Manila - The Asian Development Bank on Friday trimmed the region's growth forecasts for 2012 and 2013 amid "uncertainty" in Europe and the United States, and a poor Indian economy.
Asia was set for growth of 6.0 per cent in 2012, and 6.6 per cent in 2013, the bank's latest Asian Development Outlook Supplement said, 0.1 per centage point lower for each year than it predicted in October.
South-East Asian consumers and "a mild economic recovery" in China provided some buoyancy to offset India's weakness, the report said.
However, "enduring debt problems and economic weakness in Europe and the looming fiscal cliff in the United States remain very real threats to developing Asia next year," the bank's chief economist Changyong Rhee said.
Better-than-expected performances from Malaysia and the Philippines in the third quarter boosted the 2012 growth forecast for the Asean-5 group, which also includes Vietman, Indonesia and Thailand, from a collective 5.6 per cent to 5.9 per cent.
Philippine growth for the quarter was 7.1 per cent year-on-year, more than double the rate recorded in the same period a year earlier.//DPA
