SINGAPORE : Standard Chartered expects Asia and the Middle East to outperform other regions even as spiralling inflation and a spike in borrowing costs risk tipping major global economies into a recession next year, a senior executive at the bank said.
"I don't see recession as a big risk in this part of the world. In Asia and the Middle East, I see economies doing well," said Cooper, 55, who is widely seen by the investment community as a potential successor to CEO Bill Winters. "In the aftermath of COVID, we've seen the shift to Southeast Asia and neighbouring countries from a manufacturing perspective. That's continued and if anything, accelerated," Singapore-based Cooper told Reuters in an interview.StanChart, which earns most of its revenue in Asia, reported a 40 per cent rise in pretax profit in the third quarter and raised its income growth forecast for the year as rising rates boost its mainstay lending business.
Cooper, who previously spent more than two decades at HSBC, heads the division that contributed about three-fourths of StanChart's pretax profit in the nine months to September.