Chinks are beginning to appear in Asia's armour

outlook for asia

Asia appears to be going from strength to strength. US demand, Japanese structural recovery and China's emergence as a major global economy are all contributing but invesetors must keep their eyes on inherent risks

The Asia equity story is multi-faceted. Renewed demand for the region's exports is coming from a hungry US, while Japan is also seeing the early stages of what increasingly appears to be a structural, bottom-up, transformation of its economy, as well as benefiting from the cyclical recovery in the global economy. Meanwhile, the China growth story continues at a remarkable pace, contributing both to a leap in intra-regional trade and to a rally in commodity and global freight prices. China contributed to half of global growth in 2003 in purchasing parity terms. The three legs of support -...