Mr Tharman said the repricing of risk in financial markets is probably not over and did not provide reason enough to downgrade Asia's economic prospects because consumer demand remains strongSINGAPORE - A sharp slowdown in the US economy would impact Asia, although market turbulence was not expected to hurt the medium-term growth prospects of the region, a Singapore minister said on Monday.
'Should the US economy slow down sharply, Asia will certainly feel the drag,' Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the Second Minister for Finance, said in a speech at a ceremony to mark the opening of an office for Societe Generale's private bank.
He said the repricing of risk in financial markets is probably not over and did not provide reason enough to downgrade Asia's economic prospects because consumer demand remains strong.
'Asian producers will continue to move up the productivity ladder, and Asian consumers will increasingly provide the region with an independent engine for growth,' he said.
His comments come after August data on Friday showed the first fall in US non-farm payrolls in four years, raising concerns that the US sub-prime mortgage crisis is tipping Asia's main exports market into a recession.
Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsieng Loong, also the Finance Minister, said in August that the economy of the trade-dependent island would be affected if US consumption weakened. -- REUTERS
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