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The Asia Pacific region continues to outperform the rest of the world even as the EU debt crisis and anaemic growth in the United States pose external challenges. After reporting stellar growth in 2010, expansion slowed in 2011 for many key exporting nations in the Asia Pacific region including China. The much anticipated structural changes that economists were forecasting for many Asian countries —the transition from exports to a greater reliance on domestic consumption—has been slow to occur despite rising incomes and a general improvement in the standard of living for many middle class residents. Renewed concerns of a potential banking crisis in Europe have also started to impact funding, with some analysts even predicting a repeat of the global financial crisis in 2012. Many Asia Pacific nations, however, have enough tools, including reserves and fiscal policies, to address these external disruptions.
For most of 2011, the Asia Pacific real estate markets battled asset price inflation, particularly in the residential sector. Credit tightening measures included several rounds of hikes in interest rates and down payments. However, as the Eurozone debt crisis began to unfold in the second half of 2011, many central banks took a 180 degree turn with policy rates. Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand were among those to adopt more accommodative rate policies to support economic growth as manufacturing and exports started to slow.
Source : RREEF Real Estate
