Asia looks for H2 upswing

SINGAPORE: Asia’s economies are not on a strong footing as they head into the second half 2003 but the export-driven region is hoping that, having weathered a series of shocks, a long-awaited global upturn will finally materialise. 

While the worst of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) outbreak may have passed, its economic impacts are still being felt as tourism and consumer spending struggles to recover and evidence emerges that it has hit China’s industrial juggernaut.