China, US impacts Asian economies differently

While a reviving US economy might help to offset slower trend growth in China, China consumption and investment trends matter significantly to the region in recent years.

For instance, one dollar of US consumption adds about 4.2 cents to South Korea's nominal Gross Domestic Product( GDP), while each US dollar of China investment adds about 4.9 cents to South Korea's nominal GDP.

Analysts have noted that US consumption is generally more significant than US investment, which does not appear to add to Asian growth, mainly due to the dominant share of consumption in US GDP growth.

It is true that investment makes up a large share of China's GDP (about 46 percent in 2011), but consumption still makes up about 35 percent, which is still considerable given the size of China's economy.

In the case of exports to China, which gauge the significance of China consumption, Standard Chartered observed that except the Philippines and India, Asian economies had sent more of their exports to China than to the United States in 2012.

The impressive rise in the inflow of Chinese tourists in Asian countries has generally accounted for a larger portion of tourists in Asia compared with US tourists, except in India and the Philippines.

China's Taiwan and South Korea have the largest number of Chinese tourists compared with US tourists. Even for the Philippines and India, the number of Chinese tourists has increased at faster pace than US travelers.

Owing to higher number of Chinese tourists, the total amount of tourist spending is also higher for Chinese than for American travelers in the region.

Standard Chartered said that the impact of slower China growth upon most Asian economies would be negative, with the exception of India and the Philippines that appear to be more exposed to the United States than to China.