Most Asian Nations Are Avoiding Recession : Economies: Rising domestic consumption and regional trade have allowed for growth ranging from modest to overheated.

Western nations tightened their belts in 1991 while the peoples of Asia loosened theirs.

Increasing domestic consumption and regional trade kept Asian export-oriented economies growing quickly even while traditional Western markets wallowed in recession.

The newly industrialized economies of Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore are likely to continue to see modest growth next year as they spend more on roads and bridges, and buy more, especially from within the region.

Thailand and Malaysia are also barreling forward.

Vietnam is struggling against a U.S. trade embargo and India is hampered by a huge foreign debt, but they are also optimistic about the future.

The Asian Development Bank recently forecast that Asia, excluding contributions from Japan, would show economic growth of 6.2% this year, compared to 0.4% globally. Estimates for 1992 were 6.5% in Asia, compared to a global 2.3%.

Estimates for 1991 growth by country vary widely, but are generally impressive. Gross national product is expected to grow 1% in the Philippines, which was struck by an earthquake and heavy floods earlier this year; 8.7% in South Korea, and 7.2% in Taiwan. Malaysia is expected to show an 8.6% increase in 1991 in its gross domestic product, which omits income from abroad.

“Simply put, our massive spending on infrastructure is keeping domestic investment high and preventing the global slowdown having much effect,” said a senior official at the Council for Economic Planning in Taiwan, which plans to spend $300 billion on roads and bridges between 1991 and 1997.

In Hong Kong, a $12.6-billion airport project planned for completion by 1997 is expected to boost the economy in the second half of 1992.

The shifting of most local manufacturing into south China is also helping to make local goods highly competitive, economists say.

Those private-sector export operations helped pull China into healthy 7% to 8% GNP growth this year despite the burden it faced of propping up unproductive state-owned enterprises.

Economists and officials in Hong Kong and Singapore predicted slower growth than in the 1980s, citing weaknesses in major markets such as the recession-hit United States.

But for other countries, growth is going out of control. South Korea faces an overheating economy fueled by much-needed spending for roads and bridges and individual “overconsumption.”

The South Korean government is campaigning to stop consumers, long stifled by low wages, long working hours and a national obsession with frugality, from buying beyond their means.

Pumped-up domestic consumption in 1991 helped Malaysia to escape the West’s recession, but its economy seemed close to overheating.

“With the cycle peaking in 1990, a downswing seems inevitable,” said the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, a private economic think tank.

Thailand’s economy, expected to show growth of 7% to 8% in 1991, expanded by an average 11.6% between 1988 and 1990. But its shortage of construction materials, skilled workers and middle-level executives worsened.

“These constraints will not allow the Thai economy to grow very high any more,” economist Prayphol Khumsab said.

And in some countries, corruption remains a major problem.

“The issue here is not growth,” said Hartojo Wignjowijoto, an economist in Indonesia. “There is a disease in the Indonesian economy--declining honesty, putting public money into private hands, the concentration of political power and the tension created with economic decentralization.”

Others are burdened by debt. Manila, hit by a series of natural disasters, needs fresh funds from foreign donors and creditors to meet its growth target this year.

The International Monetary Fund has completed a review of economic performance in the Philippines, but is withholding financial assistance until the Senate approves legislation to cut the deficit.

The IMF also influenced economic planners in India, where total foreign debt rocketed from $41 billion in 1986 to $71 billion last March.

Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh struggled this year to introduce market reforms stifled in the past by ideology or authoritarian rule.

Vietnam fared much better than expected in 1991. One United Nations economist could have been speaking for many in Asia’s developing world when he said of Hanoi: “The problems are not over, but I’m feeling a lot more optimistic than I was a year ago.”