The scale of the economic slowdown in Asia was starkly underlined yesterday when the International Monetary Fund virtually halved its 2009 growth forecast for the region.
The IMF’s slashed its forecast to 2.7 per cent from an estimate of 4.9 per cent made only two months ago. It came as both Australia and Japan announced new measures to sustain their flagging economies.
In Australia, the government unveiled a $42bn fiscal stimulus and the central bank cut interest rates to the lowest level since the 1960s. In Tokyo, the Bank of Japan unveiled a plan to spend up to Y1,000bn ($11.2bn) to buy shares owned by banks amid growing concerns over the impact of falling stock prices on the financial system.
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