The "oil crunch" or "peaking oil" will start to destabilize economies, politics and society in general as early as 2015. "The rise in the oil price will have a major impact on anything from fertilizer to computers to clothes," Virgin Airlines owner Richard Branson has warned.

Japan enjoyed its biggest on-year increase in exports in almost 30 years last month. The value of exports rose 40.9% in January 2010 from a year earlier, the fastest pace since February 1980.

Putting all this into long-term perspective, the current problem offers a glimpse of the likely more massive labor shortage issue that China is set to face in the next few decades as its single-child policy keeps accelerating the aging of its still-enormous population.

The share of exports of the Big Five of 1999 fell to 34% in 2009. That loss of nine percentage points was matched by a similar gain for China, India and South Korea, with most of the gain going to China.

The emergence of the world economy from the worst slump since World War II spurred businesses in Taiwan, where exports equal half of GDP, to boost production and hire more workers.

German exports in 2009 were equivalent to US$1,121.3 billion which compared with the US$1,201.7 billion exported by China. China's goods exports also suffered badly last year, falling by 16% over the course of the year, the first time they had declined since 1978.

The US economy grew by an annualised rate of 5.7% between October and December, official figures have shown. But even with the rebound, GDP shrank by 2.4% across 2009 as a whole.

Meeting that goal would require the president to engage in a fight to the death with the liberal wing of his own party, persuade China to allow its currency to appreciate 40%, get global economic growth to outperform the salad days from 2003 to 2007, and lower taxes for American companies that do business abroad. And, while he is at it, forget about strengthening the dollar in the foreseeable future.

Japan's exports grew for the first time in 15 months in December 2009, according to the finance ministry. Its exports to China expanded 42.8% to 1.1 trillion yen in the month.

Chinese authorities have signaled that bank lending would slow significantly in 2010, the latest in a series of moves intended to forestall inflation and stave off bubbles in the stock and property markets.

China has said its economy expanded by 8.7% in 2009, exceeding even the government's own initial expectations.

China was fast with its stimulus program...even though the country has been climbing nicely out of recession, the government still plans to spend the full US$600 billion of stimulus money.

"China's exports largely consist of low-value everyday goods like cheap electrical appliances and textiles - but that's a long way from where it wants to be..."

China's exports probably ended a 13-month slide in December, aiding an economic rebound that has so far depended on government stimulus measures and a credit-fueled building boom.

A recent research by SEMI indicates China is committed to narrow the gap between its IC production and consumption. "In addition to investments in the macro economy, the Chinese government also remains the biggest investor in the semiconductor industry in China..."

China exported US$957 billion of goods in the first 10 months of 2009, compared with US$917 billion for Germany, according to customs data compiled by Global Trade Information Services.

Taiwan's main opposition Democratic Progressive Party has said the government has failed to attract large amount of Chinese investment to bolster the island's economy.

Singapore's economy probably shrank this quarter after six months of growth. Manufacturing output, which accounts for about a quarter of Singapore's economy, fell 8.2% in November from a year earlier.

Major South Korean exporters all got a nice boost from the weakness of the country's currency in the past two years. But with the Korean won gaining strength, will Korean exporters begin to lose some of the market share they accumulated in the past year?

"We have seen this in Japan in the 1980's. I certainly hope that China is not going to repeat the mistakes that Japan made 20-30 years ago," said Dong Tao, chief Asia economist of Credit Suisse.

China streaked ahead of its western and Asian rivals at the weekend by unveiling the world's fastest long-distance passenger train service. The improvement illustrates how China's huge investment in infrastructure is dramatically shrinking the country.

China's growth may surge to as much as 12% in 2010, thanks to a rebound in exports and domestic spending.

Japanese exports in November 2009 fell at the slowest pace in more than a year on strong Asian demand, easing concern about the strength of the country's economic recovery.

To be fair, 2009 was a year that defied prediction. Who would have thought the stock market would drop like a stone until early March and then abruptly rise like a rocket?

Robust German exports have helped calm fears that the economic recovery in Europe's largest economy is losing momentum.

Japan's economy in third-quarter 2009 grew sharply less than initial estimates as cautious companies decided to save, not spend.

South Korea's economy grew faster than expected in the third quarter of 2009, fuelling hopes that Asia's fourth-largest economy is making a solid recovery from the global downturn.

South Korea expects exports in 2010 to grow 12.9% from this year on a global economic recovery and imports to rise 21.5%, producing an estimated US$20 billion trade surplus, the government said.

Japan's central bank has said it was watching currency movements "with great concern" as the yen traded at a 14-year-high against the dollar. The surging yen could set back a recovery from Japan's worst post-war recession because it makes the country's exports less competitive.

The announcement followed a pledge on Wednesday from the US to cut its emissions by 17% by 2020, provisional on the passage of domestic legislation.

Dubai's debt problems shook markets that are recovering from the collapse of the US housing market and contagion that threatened to rupture the global financial system last year.

Thailand's economy grew for a second straight quarter as government stimulus spending and an improvement in manufacturing propelled its recovery from recession.

A recovery is coming in 2010 but many things about it remain uncertain, according to a survey. One consistent finding is that the Chinese market opportunity is the key to growth.

Figures released by the Japanese government show that the country's economy has grown for a second successive quarter.

The growing influence of Brazil and China in the world economy received further recognition this week when the most commonly used benchmark for emerging-market stocks increased the weighting of companies in those nations.

Exports hit a one-year high of US$19.8 billion in October 2009, as a recovery in the world's economy boosted demand for Taiwanese-made electronics, according to Taiwan's Ministry of Finance.

Taiwan Vice Premier Eric Chu has said a breakthrough in the negotiations with Beijing on cross-strait financial regulation was expected in a matter of days.

The increase in GDP has not translated into jobs yet because of firms' strong tendency to work each employee harder early in a recovery before hiring more of them.

US consumer spending fell for the first time in five months in September, coinciding with the end of the government's car scrappage scheme.

In January, China's exports to its Southeast Asia neighbors counted for around one third of that to the EU. Eight months later, China's exports to Asean countries had grown to the equivalent of about half of exports to the EU.