Standard Chartered Asia CEO optimistic about Eastern Asian economies

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 28 (Xinhua) -- Jaspal Bindra, chief executive officer (CEO) of Standard Chartered's Asia operations, said on Saturday Eastern Asian economies would remain vigorous in years ahead.

"For the markets in Asia, I should frankly say that it (eurozone debt crisis) will have some impact," said Bindra on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum.

But he said, "Asian economies have strong resilience, which is based on their strong fundamentals."

"Eastern Asian economies usually have strong corporate balance sheets and household balance sheets," he added.

Asian economies may grow a little bit slower than the previous years but they would perform better than the rest of the world, said Bindra.

He warned that a serious recession in Europe, if possible, especially a prolonged recession in both the Europe and the United States, could hurt Asia. But it was very difficult to see a collapse in Asia, he added.

Since almost all Eastern Asian nations were export-driven, problems in Europe might have some impact on them, but those nations with strong domestic markets might offset the impact with domestic consumption, he said.

"Since China has the largest domestic market, I think China could resort to domestic consumption and offset partly reduction in export to Europe or America," Bindra said.

Bindra believed there would be a soft-landing in the Chinese economy, with the growth rate for 2012 standing at about 8.5 percent. He said there were some dangers in the real estate sector in China but also said the falling housing price was not caused by "a burst in housing bubbles" but was due to the measures of the government.

"I think the government is extremely wise to control the price. So I hope in the upcoming years it will go up gradually and in a controlled way," said Bindra. "The government acted in advance of burst of bubbles."