Krisis kewangan Amerika menjejaskan Asia...

Petikan dari BusinessWeek.com mengenai krisis kewangan Amerika Syarikat yang juga akan menjejaskan Asia:

....unfortunately for Asian countries, the news is likely to get uglier. Analysts at Standard Chartered point out in a Friday report “Asia has the highest trade/GDP exposure of any Emerging Market region.” Reliance on exports to the U.S. and other developed countries doesn’t translate into strong equities or currency markets when the West is in recession. “In good times, this [trade/GDP exposure] means that the Asian region significantly outperforms. However, in more challenging economic times, this means that it underperforms.” That’s why Asian markets are doing so poorly – and why they’re likely to keep heading south. “The U.S. is the center of global liquidity and as that liquidity is reduced so markets outside of the center get hit proportionally harder,” the Standard Chartered analysts write. “In this context, Asian equity markets have led the way and Asian currencies are only playing catch up, suggesting that they still have some way to go.”

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/eyeonasia/archives/2008/10/asias_crisis_is.html?campaign_id=rss_daily

Untuk berhujjah bahawa negara kita terlindung dan tidak terjejas dengan masalah kewangan yang melanda Amerika Syarikat... seperti tidak masuk akal. Ianya harus difikirkan semula... Setahu penulis, Malaysia & Korea Selatan dalah antara pengeksport microchip dan barang elektrik utama ke negara tersebut. Kejatuhan harga minyak dipasaran dunia serta harga komoditi lain seperti minyak kepala sawit sudah tentunya memberikan kesan negatif.

Lihat sahaja di Indonesia, penulis dimaklumkan oleh pembantu rumah penulis bahawa para pekerja ladang di Medan, Sumatera diberhentikan kerja apabila kos pengeluaran kelapa sawit adalah melebihi keuntungan yang bakal diperolehi - sehinggakan harga setandan kelapa sawit dinilai berharga (200 perak) iaitu Rupiah 200 sahaja setandan! Kalau kita convert kepada nilai Ringgit sekarang... RM1-00 = Rupiah 3,100 - berapa sen sangat nilai setandan kepala sawit di Indonesia! Maka ambillah iktibar dari kejadian yang menimpa rakyat negara jiran kita.