SINGAPORE asset managers handled a record high assets worth $1.2 trillion at the end of 2009, surpassing even the pre-crisis peak of 2007.
In 2008, they managed $864 billion of assets, said Mr Ong Chong Tee, Deputy Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Friday.
Speaking at the OCBC Global Treasury economic and business forum, he said the Asia Pacific region continued to be the key investment markets for Singapore-based asset managers, accounting for 61 per cent of the total assets under management (AUM) in 2009.
This represented an increase of 9 percentage points from the 2008 MAS survey, underscoring the growing interest in Asia markets.
Mr Ong said the rise in assets was consistent with the recovery of market sentiments from the latter half of last year.
'Asia's economic resilience through this recent crisis period stood in stark contrast to the more developed economies,' he noted. 'This was the first time that Asia has led a global recovery. In Q2 2009, most Asian economies exited the recession when US and Europe were still in contraction. In fact, the large economies in Asia such as China, India and Indonesia, continued to expand throughout the crisis. '
As at the first quarter of this year, the region's combined GDP had risen more than 11 per cent above its previous peak, while that of G3 economies remained 2 per cent below their pre-crisis level.
Going forward, Mr Ong said Asia is expected to continue to outperform the global economy. The IMF now expects Asia to grow by 7.5 per cent in 2010, with China potentially growing by some 10.5 per cent. By comparison, the world economy is expected to rise by 4.6 per cent.
Ironically, Asia's current resilience is partly the result of the Asian financial crisis more than ten years ago, which had paved the way for the strengthening of regional balance sheets that allowed Asia to weather the global financial crisis much better, said Mr Ong.
-- ST
In the Today newspapers, it was reported that assets had increased but in Yahoo, the report was the other way around? Not very consistent leh......................... Somebody must be bs la.