The performance of the East Asian NICs and Southeast Asian developing countries has been impressive: over the past decade they have attained higher rates of real output growth and export expansion with lower rates of inflation than any other group of developing nations. In Table 3.1, real rates of economic growth are compared across countries and regions. The rapid development of the Asian countries may be largely attributed to the outwardlooking and market-oriented nature of their economic policies. International trade is an integral part of the economies of the East Asian NICs and Southeast Asian countries. In general, these countries have been very open to international trade and have become increasingly integrated into the world financial markets.

Export-income ratios are very high in these countries (Table 3.2). For comparison, the average ratio of exports to GNP in the NICs and Southeast Asian countries in 1982–83 was over 50 per cent, while the ratios of the United States and Japan were 8 and 16 per cent, respectively.

Generally, it is expected that the trade–income ratio would be inversely related to the size of an economy, though no fixed relationship exists between size and importance of trade. It is remarkable that exports continued to rise in relation to income in the East Asian NICs and (except for the Philippines) in the Southeast Asian countries throughout the turbulent 1970s.

Trade policies used by countries of the region to spur high growth rates of income and industrialization have become increasingly export-oriented.