Data accrued over the past 18 months suggests Asia is proving far more resilient to the economic storm than many of its global counterparts. This is partly attributable to sizeable foreign exchange reserves held by several countries – most notably China and Japan, stable domestic demand and government stimuli.

Domestic bank liquidity, for instance, is resuming more rapidly than elsewhere, in large part due to central governments’ injection of capital and liquidity.

Over the past six months, participants report a significant improvement in liquidity from the local banking sector, through export credit agency (ECA) support and, in the last quarter, local bond markets.

Sumanta Panigrahi, head of export finance for Asia (ex-Japan) at Citi based in Hong Kong, agrees that while funding difficulties faced by banks inevitably resulted in reduced availability of financing to borrowers earlier this year, the situation has improved dramatically over the latter half of the year, with...