Downward pressure on Asian currencies increased slightly last week, with the geopolitical and monetary climate becoming less favourable. This recent pressure has been fuelled by fears of rising international oil prices as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, on the one hand, and the shifting stance of the US Federal Reserve on the other. However, the Indian rupee has held up better than other Asian currencies so far.
China’s economic growth accelerated slightly in Q1 2024. It hit 1.6% quarter-on-quarter (from 1.2% in Q4 2022) and 5.3% year-on-year (from 5.2% in the previous quarter). To support activity in 2024, the authorities have opted to strengthen their industrial policy whilst maintaining a prudent demand policy. The manufacturing export sector has posted the strongest performance in the past few months.
Against a backdrop of sluggish domestic demand and strategic rivalries, particularly with the US, the Chinese government is further developing its industrial policy to support economic growth and strengthen “national security“. Priority is being given to the high-tech and energy transition sectors. With considerable support from the government, these sectors are moving up the value chain, increasing their production capacity, lowering selling prices and winning export market share. The flood of green tech products is expected to lead to further trade conflicts in the coming months.
The Bank of Japan has made an admittedly expected, yet nonetheless historic, decision to end its so-called Negative Interest Rate Policy (NIRP), against the backdrop of an almost unprecedented long-term rise in the general price level. However, monetary normalisation will be an incremental process, with the current weak business activity, illustrated by an expected negative growth rate in the first quarter of 2024 and low expectations for the entire year, leaving no scope for any significant tightening.
March saw an improvement in activity in Japan, according to the Jibun Bank PMI survey. Both the manufacturing index (48.2, +1.0pp), thanks to a widespread rise in the main sub-components, and the non-manufacturing index (54.9, +1.3pp) recovered, allowing the Composite index to reach its highest level since August 2023 (52.3, +1.7pp).
Economic indicators for the first two months of 2024 showed a slight improvement in activity, driven primarily by the export manufacturing sector. Growth in industrial production reached +7% y/y in real terms in January-February 2024 compared to +6% in Q4 2023, and manufacturing investment also strengthened slightly. It increased by +9.4% y/y in nominal terms over the first two months, after +6.5% over 2023 as a whole.
Japan entered a technical recession in H2 2023. The first estimate of Q4 GDP indicates a modest contraction of -0.1% q/q following a more significant downturn of -0.8% q/q in the previous quarter. More symbolically, Japan lost its ranking as the world's third largest economy (in nominal GDP) to Germany. Nevertheless, the strength of economic activity in H1 2023 had given the Japanese economy a significant growth carry-over, allowing the average annual growth rate to reach +1.9% for the year (compared to +0.9% in 2022).
The post-Covid recovery in China’s economic activity was not as strong as expected in 2023. The property sector crisis deepened further at the end of the year, the demand for housing did not pick up again, and weak household confidence continues to weigh on household consumption. Conversely, the export-oriented manufacturing sector performed better than expected in the last quarter, in contrast with the performances of domestically oriented sectors. The authorities are maintaining an accommodative policy. However, the weak financial situation of local governments is constraining public investment, and the People's Bank Of China has little room for manoeuvre to revive credit growth. The banking sector is facing an increase in credit risk, but this is seemingly still under control.
India’s economic activity remained healthy during the first half of the current fiscal year. Over the 2023/2024 full year, it is expected to be close to 7%, boosted mainly by sustained private and public investment. The rise in the investment rate for the second year in a row is particularly beneficial, as it addresses one of the country’s structural fragilities. Up until now, the constraints on production factors (both labour and capital) and the country’s lack of integration into global trade have made it less appealing, as evidenced by the further drop in FDI flows (-0.9% of GDP) over the first three quarters of 2023. However, the moderate current account deficit and large foreign exchange reserves are reducing the downward pressures on the rupee.
In Malaysia, economic growth remained robust in 2023 even if it decelerated due to unfavourable base effects. Domestic demand was the principal driver, whereas exports contracted substantially. The outlook for 2024 remains positive and economic growth is expected to recover slightly. The main areas of concern are the developments on the property market and in the construction sector (which contains a large number of the most fragile companies), the consolidation of public finances (which is still happening very gradually) and the evolution of external accounts
Strong household consumption and the return of tourists should help economic growth to accelerate over the next few quarters. The lack of competitiveness of the export sector and the effects of El Niño are the key risks to growth and exports. In addition, the political situation remains tense and the government coalition looks fragile. Budgetary slippage may occur and the Bank of Thailand is expected to pause its monetary easing.
Vietnam went through a number of difficulties in 2022 and 2023, related to the deterioration of the international environment, the severe correction in the property sector, the crisis of confidence and liquidity tensions in the banking sector. Economic growth stalled in early 2023, but then quickly accelerated again. Most notably, activity in the manufacturing export sector has been recovering for a few months, buoyed by healthy foreign direct investment inflows. These trends are expected to continue in the short term, with Vietnam being one of the major beneficiaries of the ongoing adjustments to global value chains.
The post-Covid recovery in China’s economic activity was not as strong as expected in 2023. The property sector crisis seemingly deepened further at the end of the year, the demand for housing did not pick up again despite support measures from the authorities, and weak household confidence weighs on private consumption. Conversely, the export-oriented manufacturing sector has performed better than expected over the past few months, in contrast with the performances of domestically oriented sectors.
Faced with a natural disaster and a political crisis, 2024 is off to a rocky start for Japan. However, the economic impacts of the earthquake that struck the country’s west coast on 1st January 2024 are expected to be fairly limited due to the authorities’ effective preparations and quick response in dealing with this type of event. After an expected growth of +0.4% q/q in the fourth quarter of 2023, activity should slow in the first quarter of 2024, although it will remain positive at 0.2% q/q. The fall in inflation and bond yields at the end of 2023 is providing some breathing room for the BoJ, which is expected to end its negative interest rate policy in March or April
More than 18 months after defaulting on its external debt payments, Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic position has improved, but remains very fragile.
In Q4 2023, Chinese economic growth accelerated slightly to 5.2% year-on-year (y/y), compared to 4.9% in Q3. However, it lost momentum in quarter-on-quarter terms, standing at +1% q/q in Q4 vs. +1.5% in Q3. Our barometer seems to indicate a widespread improvement in activity in the last quarter of 2023 compared to the previous quarter, but this is still largely due to the post-Covid normalisation of domestic demand and significant base effects. Actually, the Chinese economy continues to face a large number of vulnerabilities, which are likely to persist in the short term.
The Bank of Japan’s latest Tankan survey, published in December, highlights the country’s significant labour shortages and recruitment challenges. These are affecting all sectors and are even reaching record levels in almost a quarter of them. In order to facilitate the interpretation, the data in this table are converted in Z-score, which measures the number of standard deviations separating each index from its long-term average (1974-2023 period).
The revision of Japanese growth figures was unfavourable, resulting in a greater decline in GDP in Q3 than initially estimated (-0.7% q/q versus -0.5% q/q). The downward adjustment is largely due to greater destocking: the negative contribution was increased from -0.3 percentage points (pp) to -0.5 pp. Other significant revisions came from residential investment (from -0.1% q/q to -0.5% q/q), private consumption (0.0% q/q to -0.2% q/q) and public investment (-0.5% q/q to -0.8% q/q). Low household consumption can be explained by the contraction of real wages for the 19th consecutive month in year-on-year terms (-2.3% y/y in October). Overall, private demand reduced quarterly growth by 0.6 pp in Q3.
The latest activity data for the Chinese economy reminds us once again of the fragility of the post-Covid recovery dynamic. Domestic demand is picking up, in particular thanks to the normalisation of private consumption, but significant headwinds remain. Meanwhile, the performance of the export sector seems to have improved slightly.
In China, economic growth is expected to stabilize in the coming quarters, after four years of multiple shocks and unusual volatility. Economic growth rates will stay below their pre-Covid level.
The preliminary GDP estimate for Q3 shows a contraction of -0.5% q/q, while the most recent economic surveys have confirmed the slowdown in activity. The composite PMI fell 1.6 points in October, but remained in expansionary territory, standing at 50.5. This deterioration is due to the decline in the services PMI, which was down by 2.2 points (51.6 compared to 53.8 in September). The manufacturing PMI stabilised in contraction zone at 48.7.
In 2023, for the second consecutive year, Malaysia’s external accounts have deteriorated slightly, but are still strong. Over the first nine months of the year, the current account surplus decreased by 18.3% compared to the same period last year. The strong rebound in tourism has not been enough to offset the decline in the trade surplus caused by the global economic slowdown and the sharp contraction in demand for semiconductors and electronic products, which account for 36.3% of the country’s exports.
According to the latest economic data out of China, the post-Covid recovery remains on track, although its momentum remains weak. In October 2023, growth in the services sector accelerated further (to +7.7% year-on-year compared with +6.9% in September), buoyed by the improvement in the performance of retail sales (+7.8% year-on-year in October compared with +5.5% in September).
Monetary policy desynchronization between the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan (BoJ) has become huge. This has caused a significant weakening of the yen. Higher US yields have also exerted upward pressure on JGB yields, which in turn has forced a gradual adjustment of the BoJ yield curve control policy (YCC). Inflation developments in Japan increase the likelihood of a policy rate increase but policy normalization is a delicate task for domestic reasons as well as international spillovers. The BoJ has chosen a cautious approach, with very incremental steps, but in the meantime the yen has continued to weaken, creating the risk of a snapback once policy is tightened. Acting sooner rather than later seems to be the recommended route for the BoJ.
In Q3 2023, Chinese economic growth rebounded to +1.3% quarter-on-quarter, after a very poor +0.5% in the previous quarter. It stood at +4.9% year-on-year (y/y) compared to +6.3% in Q2 2023, but this slowdown is due to unfavourable base effects in Q3. Chinese economic growth reached 5.2% year-on-year over the first three quarters of 2023.
