Business24-7, 20 Feb 2009, AFP
Asians should raid their savings and go shopping if the region wants to dodge the worst fallout from the global economic crisis, but analysts doubt entrenched saving habits can be broken.
As the global slowdown has spread across the region in the past few months, the call from economists for Asia to boost sluggish consumer spending has reached a crescendo.
"I think an important outcome of this global crisis is you will see Asia finally 'get the religion' of internal private consumption – the piece that was missing from the response to the financial crisis of 1997-98," Stephen Roach, chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, said. Demand for goods from South Korea and Japan is collapsing, while even China's previously unstoppable export machine is stuttering.
Read More
