Over the past year,
the world economy has gradually emerged from its worst
recession in the post-war era. The global financial
crisis, which saw the collapse of Lehman Brothers
in September 2008, caused massive economic fallout
worldwide. Amidst an erosion of confidence, global
trade and industrial production collapsed in the first
half of 2009, resulting in a 2.4% year-on-year contraction
in world GDP over the same period.
Since then,
however, the timely implementation of expansionary
fiscal and monetary stimuli has produced a rebound
in economic activity. This recovery has generally
continued into 2010 with growing evidence that the
supports to growth have moved beyond exports and industrial
production to the broader economy in the US and the
Asia ex-Japan1
economies.
1
Asia ex-Japan comprises China,
Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.
