Anoop Singh, the director of the International Monetary Fund's Asia-Pacific Department, said power losses in Japan following the nation's worst earthquake threaten to disrupt growth in the region's emerging economies.
The IMF forecast for growth of about 8 percent in emerging Asian economies this year would be imperiled by continued outages in Japan, where damage to the Fukushima nuclear power plant has prompted consideration of energy constraints.
"The risks are clearly on the downside," Singh said at a news conference in Washington Sunday. "There are uncertainties about power outages that could disrupt production in the supply chain."
Japan's government said last week it may impose legal limits to electric power use as policymakers prepare for shortages that are likely to worsen as the summer approaches. "Sizeable" reconstruction spending should help the economy to rebound, Singh said. In China, Asia's largest economy, inflation "should peak shortly and will come down later this year," he said.
"Policies are targeting this. This is clearly recognized by state leaders. We can be sure the measures that they have taken so far, these will be increased until we are certain inflation is coming down," Singh said.