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Asia-economy Asia to grow 5.5% in next five years: EIU

AFP - Singapore

Asia-Pacific economies, including India, are expected to grow faster than other regions in the next five years but expansion could be disrupted in the short term by several risks including a us slowdown and a resurgence of the SARS epidemic, a report said recently. In its latest projections, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) predicted that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the Asia-Australasia region excluding Japan will enjoy the fastest average annual expansion rate of 5.5 per cent in 2003-2007 compared with other areas.

But the performance will be a shadow of the growth experienced before the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis, the EIU said.

In the near term, the projected improvement in the region’s performance is due to the brighter outlook for the global economy, particularly that of the US which is a major market for Asia’s export-dependent economies, it said.

However, a number of risks threaten to halt Asia’s upward momentum, the EIU said. These include a resurgence of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic, a slowdown in US consumer spending and continued sluggishness in Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) members, it said.

The 10-member ASEAN grouping, still struggling to regain its lost glory since being hit badly by the regional financial crisis, is likely to grow by an average of 3.9 per cent in 2003 and 4.9 per cent in the following year.