The growth forecast for the Asia Pacific region has been cut for both this year and next, as China’s slowdown and the threat of a US interest rate rise continues to hit the markets.
The World Bank has cut growth from its earlier forecast of 6.7 percent down to 6.5 percent this year, and 6.4 percent in 2016.
In a statement, the World Bank’s chief economist Sudhir Shetty said on Monday:
“Developing East Asia’s growth is expected to slow because of China’s economic rebalancing and the pace of the expected normalization of US policy interest rates.
“If China’s growth were to slow further, the effects would be felt in the rest of the region, especially in countries linked to China through trade, investment and tourism.”
In spite of this, Asian markets had a positive day on Monday, taking its lead from US markets which jumped more than 1 percent at close on Friday despite the release of disappointing jobs data.
Tokyo’s Nikkei rose 1.8 percent, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbing 1.8 percent and South Korea’s Kospi 0.5 percent.
U.S. non-farm payrolls rose by 142,000 in September, considerably lower than the 203,000 jobs the markets had expected, data showed on Friday.
