Economic expansion in Asia was curtailed in the year under review. A slowdown could be observed in emerging markets, triggered in part by faltering demand from industrialised nations but also often rooted partly in problems at home. India’s large economy, for example, suffered from overregulation and inadequate infrastructure. The surge in private consumption and also capital expenditure slowed markedly there in the year under review. The ifo Institute put GDP growth at just 3.7%. In China wage costs began to rise with increasing industrialisation and also due to demographic factors. The real estate sector has also been experiencing a downturn since the previous year. What is more, the country found itself caught up in the economic weakness affecting the industrialised world. As a result, GDP grew by just 7.8% in the year under review.

Japan enjoyed a sizeable boost in economic output at the beginning of 2012, only to be followed by a decline as the year progressed. With the strained state of the US economy easing only slowly, and given the crisis in the Eurozone as well as the cooldown in China’s economy, Japan’s foreign trade was significantly impacted. GDP rose by 2.1% relative to the previous year.