Recent Asian stock market turbulence normal corrections: ADB official

The recent turbulence in Asian stock markets is normal market corrections, instead of a sign of another looming financial crisis, said a senior official with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) here Friday.

"The economic fundamentals in Asian countries are healthy on the whole, and there's no sign of massive fund withdraw from the region," said ADB Vice President Ji Liqun in an interview with Xinhua.

"Therefore, I believe the recent turbulence in the Asian stock markets is normal corrections, and should be temporary," he said.

Over the past two weeks, most Asian stock markets experienced rough fluctuations in face of a massive sell-off. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index lost 6.13 percent for the week to March 2, and shed another 307.13 points or 1.58 percent to finish at 19,134.88 this week.

"The turbulence is caused more by psychological factors than by economic fundamentals," he said, noting after the markets made successive strong gains, many investors were extremely sensitive, and any seemingly negative news could trigger a massive sell-off.

Jin dismissed the views that the downturn of Asia's stock markets in the previous two weeks were triggered by the plunge of China's mainland stocks on Feb. 27 , saying that such views exaggerated the influence of Chinese stock markets, which are far from big and open enough as to affect world markets so heavily.

The stock markets turbulence started coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Asian financial crisis, and some pundits had predicted a possible reoccurrence of such a crisis in the near future.

Jin said that the economic, policy and management fundamentals in Asian countries are quite different from those 10 year ago, and most Asian countries have taken concrete steps to prevent such a crisis.

"There's little chance that such a crisis would happen again as long as the economic development in Asian countries is sustainable and balanced," he said.

Source: Xinhua