CANBERRA, March 4 (Reuters) - Australia registered its first quarterly economic contraction in eight years, partly because nine of its 13 biggest trading partners are either in recession or sinking into recession.
The official 2008 trade figures below rank Australia's top trading partners by two-way trade, and also show the percentage of Australian exports taken by each. In total, countries taking about 55 percent of Australian exports are in recession.
Recession is commonly defined as two straight quarters of contraction, although some economies with only one quarter of contraction have already declared themselves to be in recession. RANK COUNTRY IN TWO-WAY TRADE EXPORTS SHARE EXPORTS
RECESSION? A$ BL PERCENT A$ BLN 1 Japan Yes A$70.6 22.6 A$50.35 2 China No A$68.2 14.8 A$32.97 3 U.S. Yes A$38.9 5.4 A$12.17 4 S. Korea Yes* A$25.0 8.3
A$18.59 5 Singapore Yes A$22.4 2.8
A$6.17 6 U.K. Yes A$19.3 4.2
A$9.33 7 N.Zealand Yes A$17.0 4.2 A$9.40 8 Thailand Yes^ A$15.6 2.4 A$5.35 9 India No A$15.4 6.1 A$13.55 10 Germany Yes A$13.4
0.9 A$2.06 OTHER MAJOR EXPORT MARKETS 11 Malaysia Likely+ A$12.9 1.8 A$4.01 12 Taiwan Yes A$12.8 3.8 A$8.38 13 Indonesia No A$9.5 1.9 A$4.27
* South Korea's economy contracted 5.6 percent between the September and December quarters of last year, its second-biggest contraction on record, and the government expects the economy to register in 2009 its first full-year contraction for 11 years.
^ Thailand's gross domestic product suffered its biggest contraction on record in the fourth quarter, a seasonally adjusted 6.1 percent, after exports collapsed, and the planning agency said the economy would probably shrink in 2009.
+ Malaysian economic growth slowed to its weakest in eight years in the December quarter, up just 0.1 percent from a year earlier. Many economists see Malaysia heading for its first annual recession since the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98. (Reporting by James Grubel; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Koh Gui Qing)
($1=A$1.56)