IMF sees growth across Asia at 5.5% this year

GROWTH across Asia should remain steady at around 5.5 per cent overall this year and the next, as advanced economies "turn the corner" towards recovery and fuel global demand, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said yesterday.

But it warned that this rosy scenario could go badly wrong if the tightening in global liquidity occurs more suddenly and sharply than expected, and if China's economic slowdown proves more serious than projected.

The IMF, which made this assessment in its regional economic outlook report for Asia and the Pacific launched in Hong Kong yesterday, flagged a host of potentially dangerous shoals confronting Asian economies; the tide of global liquidity receding could create fresh turbulence in global capital flows, asset prices and interest rates, it said.