A surge in exports has driven the economic recovery in the Asia-Pacific this year and would continue to be the main engine of growth next year, a UN report said Thursday, according to dpa. Developing countries in the region, defined as reaching from Turkey to the Pacific islands, enjoyed a 19.3-per-cent surge in exports this year and a 20.2-per-cent increase in imports, according to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Exports were expected to grow at the still-robust rate of 10.5 per cent in 2011, led by the region's fastest growing economies - China, India, Turkey and Malaysia - the commission's report said. "Exports continue to be a major engine of growth in the region," said Ravi Ratnayake, director of the commission's Trade and Investment Division. "As a result, Asia's share in world exports continues to rise." The report noted that the region's strong performance in exports was led by China, which imports intermediate goods from the rest of Asia and exports finished goods to the rest of the world. Intra-regional trade has increased but remained largely focused on intermediate goods while exports in finished goods and services were still dependent on mostly Western markets, the report noted. In other words, the region has thus far failed to boost domestic consumption to a sufficient level to end the region's dependence on traditional export markets - the United States, Europe and Japan. That dependence may prove dangerous in 2011 as consumer demand in Europe, Japan and the US was projected to continue to stagnate. The danger could be heightened by the adoption of austerity programmes in various countries, the debt and euro crisis in Europe, the risk of regional currency wars and uncertainties in international trade rules, the report warned. It noted that the region still has high international trade costs with the exception of China, where such costs have fallen, now ranking it along with Germany and Malaysia as one of the economies with the lowest cost of doing international trade. "It still takes three times longer to complete trade procedures in Asia-Pacific developing economies than in developed economies, such as Australia, Japan and New Zealand," Ratnayake said.
