E. Asia bounces back from crisis, says WB

E. Asia bounces back from crisis, says WB

WASHINGTON (AFP): East Asia, bouncing back from crippling
financial turmoil in 1997, is now the world's fastest growing
emerging market, but the 15 million people who fell below the
poverty line during the crisis remain impoverished, the World
Bank said here Monday.

The findings came in a report released here covering
developments in China, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia,
Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam, where according to the
bank economic growth came to five percent in 1999.

The strongest growth was recorded in South Korea, 10.2
percent, China, 7.1 percent and Malaysia, 4.9 percent.

"East Asia enters the new millennium as the world's fastest
growing emerging market -- a remarkable turnaround from the
devastating crisis that began in 1997," according to the World
Bank.

But the study also found that "the 15 million or so people
that the crisis pushed below the poverty line remain unaffected
by these improvements."

National economies in Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia went
into a tailspin in 1997 as currencies crumbled, investor
confidence plummeted and foreign capital fled. For all three
countries, the International Monetary Fund arranged rescue
packages, to which the World Bank and a number of industrialized
countries contributed.

Other countries in the region were also affected but to a
lesser extent.

"East Asian economies are clearly on the mend but a good deal
of challenging work remains to be done," according to Jean-Michel
Severino, bank vice president for East Asia and the Pacific
regions.

The report predicted that regional gross domestic product
should continue to expand this year at a rate of five percent as
exports rise.

But it added that prospects could be threatened if economic
reform efforts run out of steam, global interest rates increase,
the U.S. expansion falters or the Japanese recovery fades.

The World Bank report was published here as Japan's top
economic planner, Taichi Sakaiya warned that the country would
suffer negative growth in the last quarter of its fiscal year,
which runs to the end of March.

U.S. officials have consistently prodded Japan to reform its
markets and take steps to boost growth, thereby enabling it to
absorb more exports from fragile economies elsewhere in the
region.