..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date: 5 January 2008
Media Advisory No. N/01/2008

UN Sees Risks for Asia-Pacific Region in Slowing US Economy

“Prospects 2008” to be launched in Bangkok on 9 January

Bangkok (United Nations Information Services) – Despite predicted robust growth in 2008, the risks for the Asia-Pacific economies are “tilted to the downside” as they await an “unraveling of the United States sub-prime mortgage problem and a slowing U.S. economy". So far the economies have been “undaunted” despite global uncertainties but need to tread carefully amid signs of financial market volatility in the coming months.

The warnings come from a preview by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Key Economic Developments and Prospects in the Asia-Pacific Region 2008. The report will be launched at 1330 on January 9 at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT), Maneeya Centre, Ploenchit Road, Phatumwan, Bangkok.

The report’s release comes as the region faces new and complex challenges. How well will the Asia-Pacific economies manage the continued uncertainty in the international financial markets? Will there be further spill-over from the U.S. sub-prime markets into Asia’s financial and banking sectors, or is it an opportunity from which the region can benefit? Will the global rise in energy and food prices trigger fresh inflationary pressures and higher interest rates in Asia at a time of lower rates in the U.S. and Europe? What will be the spill-over effects of the already weakening dollar on Asia’s export capacity? What needs to be done to build the region’s defenses? These are some of the complex questions the Asia-Pacific region is facing in 2008.

The report's findings will be presented by Ravi Ratnayake, Director of the Poverty and Development Division (PDD) of ESCAP; Shamika Sirimanne, Chief of PDD’s Socio-economic Analysis Section; and Shuvojit Banerjee, Economic Affairs Officer.

The report will be launched simultaneously with the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2008 which was prepared by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York. The report outlines UN forecasts of short-term global economic, trade and financial trends and some key global economic policy and development issues.

Both reports are under embargo until 0600 GMT, Thursday 10 January (1300 on the same day Bangkok time).

For more information, please contact:

Shamika Sirimanne, Poverty and Development Division of ESCAP
Tel: (66) 22881638; sirimanne@un.org

Thawadi Pachariyangkul, United Nations Information Services,
Tel: (66) 22881861; pachariyangkul.unescap@un.org