BALI, Indonesia, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Building up the demand of Asian countries, both domestic and intra-regional, is crucial to help Asia recover more quickly than the rest of the world, said Jong-Wha Lee, acting Chief Economist of the Asian Development Bank(ADB) in an interview with Xinhua.
"Asian countries should do at least two things. One is to strengthen domestic demand and the other is to make big the regional demand, because this is very difficult time to rely on external demand for their source of growth," said Jong-Wha Lee on the sidelines of ADB's annual meeting ended Tuesday in Bali, Indonesia.
Export-reliant Asian economies are being hit hard by collapsing demand in the United States and Europe, as recession-hit consumers and companies cut back on spending.
ADB estimates that the crisis will keep more than 60 million people in developing Asia trapped in absolute poverty this year, and nearly 100 million more in 2010.
"Fortunately, Asian countries have more room to cut the policy rate, if the situation becomes deteriorating. Asian countries mobilize fiscal stimulus packages very actively, aggressively and very responsibly. So fiscal stimulus packages, especially like those adopted by China, (South) Korea and Japan would help to strengthen domestic demand," he said.
"China has been doing very well. Credit growth still maintains double-digit and actually is increasing. Fiscal stimulus was coming in," said Lee. "This time, China responded very quickly, earlier than other Asian countries and that's why we see some positive signs coming earlier than other countries."
In terms of boosting intra-regional demand, the economist called for cooperative efforts to do it simultaneously, mobilizing resources to build the regional demand.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment