Consumers in India, China top spending league in Asia
A snapshot of consumer spending and sentiment shows that Asians fall into two camps - one suffering the impact of high interest rates and oil prices, and another bolstered by rising incomes and robust job markets.
South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia are in the first category, with signs consumption growth is slowing reinforcing a view that interest rates have peaked or are close to doing so.
In contrast, consumers in China, India, Singapore and Hong Kong are expected to remain confident for the rest of 2006. It is a pretty mixed picture and the strongest in the region are India and China in terms of the consumer spending outlook, followed by Singapore where we look for a second-half pick-up in retail sales, said Sailesh Jha, senior regional economist at Credit Suisse.
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India emerges strongest in Asia
A snapshot of consumer spending and sentiment shows that Asians fall into two camps one suffering the impact of high interest rates and oil prices and another bolstered by rising incomes and robust jobs markets.
South Korea, Thailand and Malaysia are in the first category, with signs consumption growth is slowing, reinforcing a view that interest rates have peaked or are close to doing so. In contrast, consumers in China, India, Singapore and Hong Kong are expected to remain confident for the rest of 2006.
It is a pretty mixed picture and the strongest in the region are
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Asia will be paying $55.1bn a year for broadband access by 2011, according to the latest market research.
The number of broadband subscribers in the region will triple in just five years, from 86.63 million last year, to 235.84 million in 2011, research firm In-Stat predicts.
The lions share of broadband revenue in Asia is currently being generated by a comparatively small section of the regions population.
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More than 62 per cent of
