The Asian Development Bank on Friday trimmed the region's growth forecasts for 2012 and 2013 amid "uncertainty" in Europe and the United States, and a poor Indian economy, dpa reported. The region of Developing Asia, which excludes Japan, was set for growth of 6.0 per cent in 2012, and 6.6 per cent in 2013, the bank's latest Asian Development Outlook Supplement said, 0.1 percentage point lower for each year than it predicted in October. The group of countries was dragged down by India's performance stressing the country's sliding industrial production and declining exports. In the second quarter, Indian industrial production fell 0.4 per cent and overall growth in gross domestic product (GDP) slid to 5.3 per cent from 6.7 per cent a year earlier, the report said. Moreover, growth in consumer spending was one of the lowest in recent years, it said. "With weak agricultural income keeping rural consumption low and fragile investment sentiment in the coming quarters, GDP growth is now projected at 5.4 for fiscal 2012," less than the 5.6 per cent that was forecast in ADB's 2012 October update, the report said. South-East Asian consumers and "a mild economic recovery" in China provided some buoyancy to offset India's weakness, it said. However, "enduring debt problems and economic weakness in Europe and the looming fiscal cliff in the United States remain very real threats to developing Asia next year," the bank's chief economist Changyong Rhee said. In China, October's data reinforced September's indication of recovery, the report said, with "industrial production growth rebounding to a five-month high of 9.6 per cent and fixed investment expanding 20.7 per cent, backed by a 25.5 per cent increase in infrastructure investment."
