S. Korea economy grows at fastest pace in 5 1/2 years BUT has shrunk 2.5% since 2008 and will contract overall in 2009

SHOOT: The Associated Press have a misleading headline: S. Korea economy grows at fastest pace in 5 1/2 years. That is the same as someone who makes a large payment on their credit card - but is still in debt effectively - claiming: I now have more disposable income to spend. Technically you do, but you're still in debt. Bullshitting the market might work, but reality is always going to catch up.

AP: The central bank said Friday that manufacturing and exports helped spur growth. Manufacturing expanded 8.2 percent in the second quarter while exports grew 14.7 percent.

South Korean exports, which slumped from late last year as consumers overseas cut spending amid the global downturn, have shown signs of improvement in recent months. The country's trade surplus has been hitting record highs.

SHOOT: The lower oil prices of late have conspired to boost the Asian region, which uses proportionately large amounts of fossil fuels. These lower prices have the same effect as a tax cut.

AP: China's economy, the world's third largest, grew 7.9 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier, accelerating from an expansion of 6.1 percent in the first. Singapore, meanwhile, grew for the first time in a year, its economy surging an annualized 20 percent in the second quarter.

Kwon Goohoon, economist at Goldman Sachs in Seoul, said the second-quarter figure equates to annualized growth of 9.5 percent.

SHOOT: There is no way this growth can be sustained, sorry to say. Oil prices are already hitting $70 again, and will sabotage any 'recovery'. Every rally we see from here on will be a sucker's rally, because we're in a period of permanent contraction.
As a sidenote, my father was recommending I make money now with my Economics degree. He said the market is turning and everyone will want to get in. It might look that way. My view is that capitalism is no longer a viable system. The whole system based on property markets and 'growth' needs energy and credit to work. We have neither at our disposal.

clipped from finance.yahoo.com SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's economy recorded its strongest growth in 5 1/2 years in the second quarter as increased government spending and record low interest rates insulated it from the global recession. Asia's fourth-largest economy expanded 2.3 percent in the three months ended June 30, the Bank of Korea said Friday. South Korea joins Singapore and China among the Asian nations that have released stronger growth figures in recent weeks, adding to hopes the region is emerging from the world's worst downturn in decades. There are doubts, however, whether South Korea and Asia's upturn will be sustained once the effects of government pump priming wear off. David Cohen, director of Asian forecasting for Action Economics in Singapore, said "things are turning around" and Japan, the world's second-largest economy, is expected to report its first growth in five quarters next month. But it remains unclear how strongly the region will rebound, Cohen said.

If in fact economic growth is finished, then so is “development” - Heinberg

Heinberg: The end of growth will ultimately level the economic playing field among nations (not in an absolute sense, but to a greater degree than now). But between here and “ultimately,” there is plenty of rough terrain.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon: “The financial crisis threatens the foundations of globalisation, which in turn underpins global growth.”
And for the rich nations, traversing that terrain that will entail a great deal of un-development.

clipped from www.postcarbon.org In a recent commentary I suggested that, due to the confluence of the unfolding economic crisis and Peak Oil, we have now seen the last of aggregate world economic growth—forever—if the word “growth” is conventionally defined. So far no one else seems to have taken up this idea. So, in forthcoming commentaries, I will seek to sort out the evidence that might confirm or disconfirm the notion, and also unpack some of its implications. No doubt the financial crisis will devastate poor nations. But let us not fool ourselves into thinking that rich nations have spent the past few decades tirelessly trying to make less-industrialized countries prosperous and powerful like themselves.