Standing amid the shoppers thronging Asia’s capitals it looks very much as though the region’s V-shaped recovery is steaming ahead. India and China aside, though, a disconcerting slowdown is taking hold.
The region seems to be buzzing. Restaurants are full and exports and tourist arrivals are up. Memories of the brief recession of 2009 are obscured by a 9 per cent increase in gross domestic product for Asia excluding Japan in the 15 months to June.
Yet a slew of GDP figures for the third quarter tell a different tale: GDP contracted on a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, where it also fell in the first quarter.