The intra-regional trade has grown at an annual rate of 16.4 percent between 1975-2001 while world exports have grown at 8.2 percent per annum. China has become a pivot around which the countries in the region revolve around.
The level of the fiscal deficit and the political difficulty in reaching agreement on an appropriate deficit-reduction plan, resulted in a US downgrade (the first in its history). Earlier this week, Fitch Ratings revised the US ratings outlook, from stable to negative. The OECD projects that the US economy will grow at a 2 per cent rate next year.