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South Korean President Lee Myung-bak at a press conference at the Blue House in Seoul, on Sept. 30.
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Rising Chinese demand helped drive South Korea’s economy to its fastest growth in seven years in the third quarter, underscoring how Asia is leading the global economy and trade out of the worldwide downturn.
Asia’s fifth-largest economy grew 2.9 per cent from the previous quarter as South Korean exporters benefited from rising Chinese demand. Last week, China said its economy, which has regained speed on the back of massive government stimulus spending, expanded 8.9 per cent in the third quarter from a year ago.
The South Korean recovery underlines how both demand and production from Asian countries has assumed an increasing role in global growth over the past few months.
A widely watched indicator of trade from the Dutch Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, released last week, showed that import demand from emerging market Asian countries rose 6.6 per cent in the three months to August, sucking in imports from the rich world as well as from other regional economies.
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