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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: peter michaelson who wrote (1999)	2/9/1998 7:55:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 9980

ASIA-Economic Data (Feb 9-Feb 15) For Personal use only Source:Morgan Stanley Peter and all: Here is some data which may of interest to y'all. Asia Pacific: Economic Data Calendar (Feb 9 - Feb 15, 1998) Anita Chung/Denise Yam (Hong Kong) Country Date Data For Forecast Actual -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CN 9 CPI JAN 0.0% +0.3% Money Supply M2 JAN +16.8% +17.3% Retail Price Inflation JAN -1.5% -1.2% 10 Foreign Reserves DEC US$142.0bn US$139.9bn 12 Trade Balance JAN US$3.0bn US$0.11bn 13 Industrial Output JAN +9.5% +9.2% IN 9 Foreign Reserves JAN US$27.5bn US$27.4bn 11 Industrial Production NOV +2.9% +3.3% 12 Wholesale Price Index JAN +5.2% +4.83% KR 13 Foreign Reserves JAN N/AV US$20.4bn MY 9-12 Exports (M$) DEC +31.6% +30.9% Imports (M$) DEC +25.1% +23.1% Trade Balance DEC RM1.5bn -RM0.7bn 9 Foreign Reserves JAN RM57.5bn RM 59.1bn SG 9-12 Manufacturing Output DEC +15.0% +10.3% 14 Bank Credit DEC +13.4% +13.7% Foreign Reserves DEC S$118.8bn S$118.5bn Money Supply M3 DEC +9.8% +10.3% -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Note: 1) This is a joint product by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Equity Research and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter FX. 2) Official data-release calendars are available for only some countries. Other dates are calculated using previous data-release dates and are indicative only. N/AV = Not Available CH = China IN = India KR = Korea MY = Malaysia SG = Singapore --------------------------------------------------------------------- Non-Japan Asia: A Quick Summary of Data Releases Anita Chung/Denise Yam (Hong Kong) Korea *** Jan 98 1997 Current account (US$ bn) 3.03 -8.9 Trade account (US$ bn) 2.18 -2.8 Invisible trade account (US$ bn) 0.33 -6.3 In January, Korea registered a surplus in the current account due to surpluses in both the trade and invisible trade account. The depreciation of the won since November has helped to turn around Korea's current account, which had been in deficit for 4 years. Improving trade and current account was mainly brought by the depression of imports. We expect trade and current accounts to be in surpluses of US$ 9.7 billion and US$5.9 billion, respectively, in 1998. Malaysia **** Dec 97 1997 Exports, Yr/Yr, % -5.7 +1.1 Imports, Yr/Yr, % -4.8 +0.8 Trade balance (US$ bn) 0.27 0.1 Note: All growth rates are calculated using exports and imports in USD terms. As expected, in December, Malaysia's exports and imports rose in M$ terms but fell in US$ terms due to the weak ringgit. A trade surplus of US$0.27 billion was posted in the month and it was the largest surplus seen during the year. In 1997, exports and imports rose 1.1% and 0.8%, respectively, and trade account was in a small surplus of US$0.1 billion. Philippines ******* Dec 97 1997 Exports, Yr/Yr, % +18.4 +22.8 Philippines recorded a lower export growth of 18.4% in December and a 22.8% growth for the whole year of 1997. Exports of electronics products, accounting for 44% of Philippines' total exports in 1997, increased at a slower pace of 35% in 1997. The corresponding growth was 45% in 1996. Representing over 50% of Philippines' exports share, total exports to the States and Japan rose 28% and 11%, respectively, in 1997, compared with 14% and 35% in 1996. Taiwan **** Jan 98 1997 CPI, Yr/Yr, % +1.8 +0.9 As the weaker NT$ drove up import prices, Taiwan recorded a 1.8% rise in consumer prices in the first month of 1998. This is the highest inflation rate recorded since July 1997. Taiwan's CPI only rose by 0.9% in 1997. Jan 98 1997 Exports, Yr/Yr, % -26.2 +5.3 Imports, Yr/Yr, % -19.4 +11.8 Trade balance, US$ bn 0.1 7.7 Taiwan's trade in January fell dramatically as a result of slowing demand from the regional crisis. Exports dropped 26.2% to US$7.6bn and imports fell 19.4% to US$7.5bn. A trade surplus of US$140mn was recorded in the month. It was also reported that petrochemical and textile exports, which were the most vulnerable to price competition from Thailand and South Korea, fell by almost 30%.