PEO/ Forecast has its aim in presenting short-term economic outlook for the Pacific region through publishing the regional economic forecast made by the coordinator and the relevant economists. The project releases the annual economic forecast in around June and also its revised version at the APEC ministerial meeting in October.
Since 2006, PEO/Forecast has fulfilled a role of the backbone of “the State of the Region”, PECC Signature Project, informing economic forecasts and risks.

Mr. Yuen Pau Woo
Vice-President Research and Chief Economist
Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

Dr. Yoshihisa Inada
Professor, Faculty of Economics, Konan University

Inflation in the Asia Pacific is set to rise sharply this year in the face of increased oil and commodity prices. Headline consumer prices will increase this year by 3.6% compared with a 2.7% increase in 2007.

In November 2007, The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) released the State of the Region Report (SOTR). This report is the main product of PECC for making policy proposals to APEC. Pacific Economic Outlook (PEO) Forecasters made significant contribution to SOTR. Mr. Yuen Pau Woo, International Coordinator of PEO Forecasts, led the editing committee. Prof. Inada, Japanese coordinator of PEO Forecast, mainly wrote the forecast of Japan economy in the 1st section.

For more detailed information, please go to PEO Forecasters/SOTR website at Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada,(http://www.asiapacificbusiness.ca/peo/)

Despite a widely anticipated slowdown in the United States, real GDP growth in the Asia Pacific region as a whole is expected to be a respectable 4.3% in 2007, compared to 5.0% the year before. East Asian economies will lead the region with 5.7% growth, down from 6.3% in 2006.

For more detailed information, please go to the following webpage.
(http://www.kiser.or.jp/peo/jpn/activities/data/sotr07-08_eng.pdf)

In November 2006, The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council(PECC) first released the State of the Region Report(SOTR) which is a product of a task force established by the governing body of the PECC, editorial committee. The SOTR is the main project which PECC started in 2006 for the purpose of strengthening its function to make a policy proposal to APEC.

Pacific Economic Outlook(PEO) Forecasters made significant contribution to SOTR. Mr. Yuen Pau Woo, International Coordinator of PEO Forecasts, led the editing committee in which PECC chair, Dr. Charles E. Morison and other PECC Chairs participated in.

The SOTR consist of three main parts: (1)the near-term economic outlook, drawing on the up-to-date forecast of PECC�f Pacific Economic Outlook panel of experts, (2)issues for the medium-long term, drawing on contributions from our editorial committee and on a survey of regional opinion leaders, and (3) a discussion on the future of regional cooperation.

For more detailed information, please go to PEO Forecasters/SOTR website at Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada,(http://www.asiapacificbusiness.ca/peo/)

Regional Imbalances Threaten Robust Outlook

The Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) today released the Pacific Economic Outlook (PEO) 2005-2006 report, an annual forecast of 18 economies in the Asia Pacific region.

The PEO Forecasting Panel expects slower but still robust growth in the Asia Pacific region this year after the significant economic expansion in 2004.

The weighted average real GDP growth for PECC economies in 2004 was 5.4%, up from 3.7% in 2003. In 2005, growth for the region will moderate to 4.2%.

In East Asia, growth in 2005 will slow to 4.8% from last year's 6.4%, which was the strongest since the 1997 financial crisis, while other PEO economies will slow to 3.4% from 4.1%

In 2006, real GDP growth is expected to remain about the same as in 2005 -- 4.3% for the whole region, 5% for East Asia and 3.3% for other PEO economies.

Inflation will be muted throughout the region, notwithstanding higher energy and non-oil commodity prices. Oil prices are expected to average US$49.50 per barrel in 2005, up 19.3% from the 2004 average, before falling to an average of US$41 a barrel in 2006.

For more detailed information, please go to PEO/Forecast's website at Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, http://www.asiapacificbusiness.ca/peo/index.cfm

Despite persistently high energy prices and the devastation caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the southern United States, the economic outlook for the Asia Pacific region remains robust. At the same time, downside risks loom large ? in particular the threat of an influenza pandemic, further deterioration in the US twin deficits, and even higher energy prices leading to a spike in inflation and interest rates. Despite the positive economic outlook, leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum who are meeting in Busan in November 2005 should not be complacent. There are latent threats in the system that have the potential to come together in a �gperfect storm�h, leading to a sudden reversal in the rosy economic picture that has characterized not just the Asia Pacific region, but most of the world economy, since 2004.

For more detailed information, please go to PEO/Forecast's website at Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada, http://www.asiapacificbusiness.ca/peo/peo2005.cfm#update