Exports to Asia Wean Europe Off U.S. Consumers

[pampango]

The CHART OF THE DAY shows that euro-region exports to China more than doubled between 2005 and 2010 to an estimated 96.5 billion euros ($134.5 billion), according to European Central Bank data. Sales of European goods to the U.S. as a share of total exports fell 3.5 percentage points in the same period while climbing 3.7 percentage points to Asia. Exports account for a fifth of the economy of the 16-nation single- currency region.

“Euro-area export growth has been increasingly driven by emerging markets, especially Asia,” said Nick Kounis, head of macroeconomic research at ABN Amro Bank NV in Amsterdam. “The world economy has become multipolar over the last few years because of the emergence of China and the other big emerging markets, and the euro-region export sector has been very well placed to profit.”

Wall Street economists predict the global economy will withstand a U.S. slowdown as international reliance on American trade diminishes. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. forecasts worldwide growth will slow 0.2 percentage point to 4.6 percent in 2011, even as gross domestic product in the U.S. falls to 1.8 percent from 2.6 percent. Europe’s economy grew at its fastest pace in four years in the second quarter as exports surged 4.4 percent.

European companies benefitting from the shift include Italy’s Piaggio & C. SpA and Germany’s Volkswagen AG. The scooter maker began selling its three-wheeled Mp3 in China in August, while the carmaker’s sales in China rose 41 percent to 1.29 million vehicles in the first eight months of the year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-07/exports-to-asia-wean-euro-area-economy-off-u-s-consumers-chart-of-day.html

[Ghost Dog]

1. Yes. From a European point of view I suppose the timing of the USA's, um, discomposure

(desmoronamiento we tend to say here, recently, I see), or tragic end (desenlace fatal), could have been worse.