OUTLOOK ASIA: by Mai Binnie, our Pacific Rim correspondent in Australia

摘要

Happy New Year and on February 19th 2015 Kung HeiFat Choi to welcome the year of the Sheep. The economies in Pacific/Asia are now going through a rather bumpy ride but even with China showing a fall in growth, most countries would enjoy a GDP of 7.4%. For China this is the lowest since 1990 and maybe now the "new normal". For the plastics industry the Chinese Bureau of Statistics reported that it expanded its added value by 8.6% for 2014 . In Australia the $Ahas dropped below $US0.80 for the first time since 2009 and as predicted in our September/October 2014 Newsletter a level of $US 0.75 to 0.73 may occur by mid year 2015. Australias PMI for December fell by 3.2 to 46.9. The low $Aus is providing good opportunities for manufacturers and exporters but making it difficult for the importers of plastic basic shapes. However failing resin prices and other raw materials are helping steady market prices. SE Asia makes up 10% of the world's population and by 2018 should be the World's fifth largest economy. If the countries succeed in creating an ASEAN Economic Community the growth rate will only be marginally behind India and China and well ahead of Brazil.