Asian economies are expected to grow at 5.5 percent this year, down from the 7 percent growth seen in 2008, local media reported on Tuesday.

According to Channel news Asia's report, Robert Prior-Wandesforde, senior Asian economist of HSBC, said both falling demand from developed economies and domestic factors will contribute to the slowdown in Asia.

He said on Tuesday at a media conference on the bank's outlook for Asia that the slide of growth will lead in economies such as China's Hong Kong and Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, while China and India will be the main supports of growth.

The media's report said the HSBC is taking comfort in the massively synchronized and powerful fiscal and monetary policies Asian economies are adopting, and also in falling commodity prices which are seeing the largest declines in 50 years.

The bank also expects Singapore's economy to bottom out in the first quarter and round up the year with a 2.8 percent contraction.

(Xinhua News Agency January 14, 2009)