It never pays to underestimate the bounciness of Asia's emerging economies. After the region's financial crisis of 1997-98, and again after the dot-com bust in 2001, outsiders predicted a lengthy period on the floor -- only for the tigers to spring back rapidly.

Earlier this year it was argued that such export-dependent economies couldn't revive until customers in the rich world did. The West still looks weak, with many economies contracting in the second quarter, and even if America begins to grow in the second half of this year, consumer spending looks sickly. Yet Asian economies, increasingly decoupled from Western shopping habits, are growing fast.

Two-figure growth

The four emerging Asian economies that have reported gross domestic product (GDP) figures for the second quarter -- China, Indonesia, South Korea and Singapore -- grew by an average annualized rate of more than 10 percent. Even richer and more sluggish Japan, which cannot match that figure, seems to be recovering faster than its Western peers. But emerging Asia should grow by more than 5 percent this year -- at a time when the old G7 nations could contract by 3.5 percent.

How has Asia made such an astonishing rebound?

Out of smoke and mirrors, say some Western skeptics. China's economy probably slowed more sharply in late 2008 than the official numbers suggest. But other indicators, which are less likely to be massaged, confirm that China's economy is roaring back. Industrial production rose 11 percent in the year to July; electricity output, which fell sharply last year, is growing again, and car sales are 70 percent higher than a year ago.

And surely the whole of Asia cannot be engaged in a statistical fraud. South Korea's GDP grew by an annualized 10 percent in the second quarter. Taiwan's probably increased by even more. India was hit less hard by the global recession than many of its neighbors because it exports less, but its industrial production has also perked up, rising by a seasonally adjusted rate of 14 percent in the second quarter.

Asia's rebound has several causes. First, manufacturing accounts for a big part of several local economies, and industries such as cars and electronics are highly cyclical: Output drops sharply in a downturn and then spurts in the upturn.

Second, the region's decline in exports in late 2008 was exacerbated by the freezing up of global trade finance, which is now flowing again.

Bolder stimulus

Third, and most important, domestic spending has bounced back because the fiscal stimulus in the region was bigger and worked faster than in the West.

India aside, the Asians entered this downturn with far healthier government finances than rich countries, allowing them to spend relatively more money. Low private-sector debt made households and firms more likely to spend government handouts. Asia's prudence during the past decade did not allow it to escape the global recession, but it made the region's fiscal and monetary weapons more effective.

Western populists will no doubt once again try to blame their own sluggish performance on "unfair" Asia. Ignore them. Emerging Asia's average growth rate of almost 8 percent over the past two decades -- three times the rate in the rich world -- has brought huge benefits to the rest of the world. Its rebound now is all the more useful when growth in the West is likely to be slow. Asia cannot replace the American consumer: Emerging Asia's total consumption amounts to only 40 percent of America's. But it is the growth in spending that really matters. In dollar terms, the increase in emerging Asia's consumer spending this year will more than offset the drop in spending in America and the euro area. This shift in spending from the West to the East will help rebalance the world economy.