Singapore: Singapore GDP slowed to 4.8% as Lee predicts ‘difficult’ global conditions
Singapore‟s growth will weaken further this year after slowing in 2011, constrained by a “difficult” global environment and government efforts to cut foreign-worker inflow, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said. Gross domestic product (SGDYTY) rose 4.8% last year, Lee, 59, said in his New Year message released in Singapore on 1 Jan. That compares with the government‟s earlier forecast of a 5% increase and a 14.5% pace in 2010. The economy will expand 1% to 3% in 2012, Lee said, reiterating a trade-ministry estimate. (Bloomberg)
Indonesia: Inflation slows, giving Central Bank room to cut interest rates
Indonesia‟s inflation (IDCPIY) slowed for a fourth straight month in December to the lowest level since March 2010, an easing that may give the central bank scope to cut interest rates further. Consumer prices (IDCPIY) rose 3.79% from a year earlier in December, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in Jakarta yesterday. That compares with the 3.86% median estimate of 14 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Inflation was 4.15% in November. Bank Indonesia Governor Darmin Nasution and his board left the nation‟s benchmark interest rate at 6% last month after cuts in October and November, joining New Zealand and South Korea in holding borrowing costs as Europe‟s growth prospects deteriorated. Price pressures are easing in the Asia- Pacific region as demand for exports slows. (Bloomberg)
Australia: Manufacturing shows first expansion in six months
Australian manufacturing (AIGPMI) expanded for the first time in six months in December, driven by gains in basic metals, transport and publishing, a private survey showed. The manufacturing index (AIGPMI) was 50.2 last month compared with 47.8 in November, the Australian Industry Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a survey released yesterday. It was the third reading for 2011 that was above 50, the dividing line between expansion and contraction. (Bloomberg)
China: Manufacturing gauge improves even as Europe demand slows economy
Chinese and Indian manufacturing gauges rose in December, suggesting that Asia‟s fastest-growing major economies are so far withstanding the fallout from Europe‟s sovereign-debt crisis. In China, a purchasing managers‟ index was at 50.3 from 49 in November, the Beijing-based logistics federation said in a statement on 1 Jan 2012. An Indian PMI rose to 54.2 from 51, HSBC Holdings Plc and Markit Economics said yesterday. (Bloomberg)
China: Balance ‘quick’ growth with control of inflation in 2012, Hu says
China will balance “relatively quick” economic growth (CNGDPYOY) with inflation control in 2012, amid rising uncertainty about the world economic recovery, President Hu Jintao said in a speech on the 1 Jan. The government will speed up economic structural adjustment and give priority to improving people‟s well-being (CHINURBN), Hu said in the five-minute New Year‟s Eve speech carried on state television and radio. “We will continue to manage well the relationship between stable and relatively quick economic growth, structural adjustment and inflation,” Hu said. “Global interdependence is deepening while instability and uncertainty in the world economy‟s revival is increasing.” (Bloomberg)
US: Employment probably picked up in December
Hiring probably accelerated in December for a second month, a sign an improving US labor market will bolster consumer spending in early 2012, economists said before a report this week. Payrolls climbed by 150,000 workers after rising 120,000 in November, according to the median forecast of 62 economists in a Bloomberg News survey before Labor Department data on 6 Jan. The unemployment rate rose last month after reaching the lowest level in more than two years, the report may also show. (Bloomberg)
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