Word: slump
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...drive to lower trade barriers has taken on fresh urgency amid the recession. Fears of an extended slump in spending by U.S. consumers have prompted policymakers to look to China, India and other neighbors as customers for exports. As Asian manufacturing networks become more intertwined - and as Asian consumers become wealthier - regional commerce is becoming critical to future economic expansion. Intraregional trade last year made up 57% of total Asia trade, up from 37% in 1980. "In the past Asia produced for America and Europe," Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said recently. "Now, Asia is producing for Asia." (Read "Signs...
...slump in the stock market really a reflection of rot in the wider economy? Not necessarily. Unlike the NYSE or the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, where institutional investors react as much to fundamentals as to greed and fear, the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges are dominated by retail investors driven to frenzy by speculation and sentiment...
...places in the world these days where consumers speak with that kind of confidence. With the U.S., Japan and all of Europe mired in the worst global recession in 30 years, China has shown a restorative strength that six months ago many doubted it had. A devastating slump in exports crippled growth late last year, but on the back of a $586 billion government stimulus program - about 13% of GDP, spread over two years - China has snapped back. The economy grew 7.9% in the second quarter and will now probably expand 8% or more this year. Evidence of increasing momentum...
...everyone sees the program as a win-win. Economist David Rosenberg at Toronto investment firm Gluskin Sheff worries that today's sales boost could lead to tomorrow's sales slump. He likens the current cash-for-clunker boost to the 0% financing that automakers introduced in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in 2001. As a result of those incentives, motor-vehicle sales perked up and the economy got a nice boost. "But what all these gimmicks do is bring forward consumption - they don't create anything more than a brief spending splurge at the expense of future performance," Rosenberg...
...resale index for Housing and Development Board apartments, a key indicator of local property-market conditions, rose an annualized 5% in the second quarter to an all-time high. In Hong Kong, a city famous for its property booms and busts, prices have rebounded from last year's slump and are on course to retake highs reached in mid-2008, according to analysts for HSBC...