Asia will lead in 2010 to recover economy

Asia ex-Japan will lead the global economic recovery with impressive growths in 2010 , with China and India in the spotlight, economists has said. International wealth management firm Invesco said on Wednesday it expected a growth of 7.4 percent for Asia- Pacific in 2010 , compared with 2.2 percent for the United States, 1.2 percent for the U.K. and 1.2 percent for the euro zone The Asia-Pacific refers to economies such as China, India, the four newly industrialized economies and the southeast Asian economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. "I expect overall gross domestic product growth for the Asia ex- Japan region of about 4 percent to 5 percent, with China still leading the pack in 2010 ," Invesco Chief Economist John Greenwood said in Hong Kong. In Asia, the possibility of a second downturn is remote, he said. "Asia is in very good shape because of ... the health of the balance sheets ... good income growth," he said, adding that consumption will be strong in China. Invesco projected a growth of 9.4 percent for the Chinese economy in 2010 and 7.5 percent for India. Greenwood said the recoveries in the developed world are modest and fragile. The key question for 2010 would be whether the recovery in the household and private sectors will be strong enough to enable the central banks to exit from the stimulus plans without harming nascent recovery. The stories are different for the developed and the emerging economies, given that the process of balance sheet repair has just begun in the U.S. and U.K. "Balance sheet repair is a prolonged process. It cannot happen quickly," he said, adding that balance sheet repair process in the U.K. after the housing boom of the late 1980 s lasted for more than half of the following decade.