stimulus

Only a few expected in late 2008 that East Asia would lead the world economy out of the crisis. Skeptics pointed to the continued dependence of the region on exports to advanced economies. And skeptics and believers alike were predicting that all countries in the region would rethink their growth models to focus more on domestic demand rather than exports and investment.

What a difference a year and a half makes. East Asia has recovered from the economic and financial crisis, with output, exports and employment mostly at pre-crisis levels. Leading the global economy, real GDP in developing East Asia is set to grow 8.7 percent in 2010, up from 7 percent in 2009, according to the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific Update report launched today (and of which I’m the lead author, full disclosure here). The projected growth rate for 2010 is almost a percentage point higher than our own forecast made six months ago, and is higher than the 8.5 percent expansion recorded in 2008.

This time last year, when the dismal 6.8% GDP growth data for China in the 4th quarter of 2008 came out, David Dollar, the former country director of China in the World Bank, asked in his blog whether one should interpret the data positively or negatively. (In other words, was the glass half full or half empty?) Compared with this uncertain situation a year ago, the Chinese economy is now in much better shape. Newly released data shows that the average GDP growth in 2009 is 8.7% – well above the most upbeat forecast made in early 2009. The growth even accelerated to double digits in the 4th quarter of 2009, standing at 10.7% (figure 1).

As part of its regular monitoring of the corporate sector in Southeast Asia, the World Bank economic team I am part of in Thailand has been working on a short case study of supply chains of Japanese multinational companies (MNCs) in the electrical and electronics (E&E) industry. We wanted to hear directly from firms about how the crisis affected them, how they were able to adjust so quickly to the drop in demand, what the rebound looked like, and what were the prospects going forward to upgrade along the value chain. I have learned a great deal from these interviews, and have become convinced that supply chains are central to understanding the current crisis in Thailand and East Asia more generally.

Some facts: the crisis had a disproportionate impact on manufacturing. In Thailand, manufacturing represents about 40 percent of GDP, but contractions in manufacturing value added have accounted for about 75 percent of the contraction of headline GDP. Within manufacturing, the auto and E&E industries account for the bulk of the contraction. Most of the output in those industries is exported, and more than three-fourths of the decline in Thai exports during the crisis was due to falls in shipments from the auto and E&E industries. My conclusion is that the magnitude of the crisis in Thailand has been driven primarily by these two industries.

As China’s economy seems to be recovering, many people here have expressed concerns about inflation. I was able to air my views on the subject in an Op-Ed in China’s main English language newspaper, the China Daily, together with two other experts.

In motivating their concerns on inflation, people cite the unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus in many countries to combat the global economic crisis, China’s own large-scale stimulus measures, or recent increases in prices of several food items as possible reasons. In my view we do not have to worry about inflation for now. There is simply too much spare capacity across the world. However, the very loose monetary conditions in China can cause other damage if left unchecked for too long. It makes sense to try to avoid future asset price bubbles and problems for banks’ balance sheets.