South Korea’s lifting economy could be the precursor for recovery in the region, reports from the Bank of Korea, in the Financial Times and from the World Advertising Research Center (WARC) agree.

The South Korean economy is reported to have grown by 2.3 per cent between April and June – which would mark the fastest quarterly growth since the fourth quarter of 2003.

Despite concerns that the US economy is recovering more slowly than hoped, affecting Far Eastern export prospects, there is mounting evidence that economies in the Asia-Pacific region are recovering.

India reported an uptick in industrial output in May, rising 2.7 per cent from the previous year, more than double the increase in April.

Chinese exports rose 7.5 per cent between May and June (albeit 21.4 per cent down year-on-year) and imports rose 15.6 per cent in the same period, but the country’s premier, Wen Jiabao, warned that “an improvement in the economy does not mean that the difficult period is over”.

And in Japan the rate of decrease in producer prices reduced to 0.3 per cent from May to June, allaying fears of deflation.

In the Philippines, exports rose ten per cent between April and May even though they were down 27 per cent on last year’s figures.