TOKYO, March 2 (AFP): Plunging Japanese car sales and a record drop in South Korea's industrial output underlined the ravaging impact of the global financial crisis today, as concerns pummelled stocks.
Fears over the health of the banking sector also grew after HSBC reported a 70 percent fall in annual net profit as bad debts surged, and said it planned to raise almost 18 billion dollars by issuing new shares.
In Japan, industry data showed sales of new cars, trucks and buses plunged 32.4 percent in February compared to a year earlier in a sector battered by a steep decline in spending, with consumers opting to save amid the downturn.
The seventh straight-month decline comes as Asia's biggest economy endures its worst recession in decades.
Fears that South Korea is slipping into recession faster than expected were deepened by official figures showing industrial output tumbled at the sharpest rate on record in January.
"The data reflects a continued economic downturn," said Yoon Myung-Jun of the National Statistical Office, attributing the decline to reduced automobile and electrical component production.
The NSO said production in mining and manufacturing shrank 25.6 percent in January from a year earlier compared with a revised 18.7 percent year-on- year decline in December.
It is the biggest contraction since the data were first compiled in January 1970.
Moody's analyst Daniel Melser said the figures heralded "the worst period for manufacturing in many years."
In Shanghai, Deputy Commerce Minister Zhong Shan warned that the financial crisis had not bottomed out yet and that China's foreign trade in 2009 would face "a severe situation," state media reported.
Independent brokerage CLSA said activity in China's manufacturing sector declined for a seventh consecutive month in February but that the contraction slowed from previous months.
Asian manufacturing weakens as recession bites
FE Team | Published: March 03, 2009 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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