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The report on the economic prospect of the Asia-Pacific region published in Shanghai by the APEC Economic Committee on October 18 shows that since the slowdown of the global economy in the second half of last year, this year continues to see a downturn, a turn for the better will begin in 2002. But China continues its rapid growth and will be a country with the fastest growth in this region this and next years.
The report points out that the unexpected rapid glide of the US economy has become the main factor for the slowdown of the global economy. The US IT industry, after several years of excessive expansion, saw a sudden drop, the personal computer market, in particular, witnessed a fall from the 13 percent growth rate in the third quarter of last year to 1.5 percent in the fourth quarter, and further to 1.3 and 0.2 percent respectively in the first and second quarters of this year. Japan has not as yet rid itself of the serious effect caused by the burst of the bubble economy in the 1990s, its economic reform maybe of benefit to its economic prospect, but currently there is still no marked improvement. Citing the predictive data of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the report holds that the growth rates of China's economy will reach 7.5 percent and 7.1 percent this and next years.
In the opinion of the report, the majority of the APEC economies are affected by the slide down of the global economy, and the export-oriented economies sustain greater influence than those economies which have a bigger share in the domestic market, particularly those economies which are dependent on the US exported electronic and IT products suffer an especially heavy blow. The APEC economies are expected to see a pickup next year along with the improvement of the global economy.
( October 19, 2001)
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