Forbes.com, 2 Jan 2009, Lionel Laurent
Recession deepens as the export slump infects one of Asia's most advanced economies.
International trade is the lifeblood of Asian economies like Singapore and Japan, but their exposure to slowing economic activity looks increasingly like a liability. Singapore's government announced Friday that it was slashing its growth forecasts for 2009 after a 12.5% quarter-on-quarter estimated fall in gross domestic product during the last three months of 2008. The contraction was far sharper than the -3.4% expected by economists, according to TradeTheNews.com, and as one of the first economies in Asia to post results for the fourth quarter, the data poses worrying signs for the rest of the region.
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