Exports take a turn for the worse

Emerging Asia’s exports have taken a turn for the worse in recent months. Leaving out China, the region’s merchandise exports, measured in US dollar terms, contracted at the sharpest annual rate in two years in January. So far six economies have released data for February and export growth weakened further in all of them. Admittedly, changes in the timing of Chinese New Year usually play havoc with export data around this time of year. But the poor performance in both January and February suggests seasonal effects are far from the whole story. Lower commodity prices have undoubtedly weighed on exports from Malaysia and Indonesia, but exports from manufacturing based economies are also struggling.