Asia's factory activity shrank in July, private surveys showed on Tuesday, a sign slowing global growth and weakness in China's economy were taking a toll on the region's fragile recovery.

China's economy grew 4.5 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter, official data showed Tuesday, after Beijing scrapped its zero-Covid measures late last year.

It is hard to ignore the growing consensus among economists that the combination of inflation and interest rate hikes alongside tempered Chinese demand and US economic uncertainty could be the perfect storm for a global recession.

China's economic performance over the last few decades has been outstanding. Despite possessing very different institutions than those seen in the advanced economies, no doubt a result of its communist system, China managed to achieve 8.7 percent average annual per capita GDP growth from 1980 to 2015.

Today, intra-regional trade accounts for just 5 percent of South Asia's total trade, compared to 25 percent for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. This vast untapped potential presents the region with an opportunity for growth that does not rely on the strength of the world economy.

China's economy grows 6.9 percent in the third quarter, the weakest rate since the global financial crisis.

In these times of interconnected economies, China's recent economic troubles seem to be the last straw that broke the camel's back. First of all, less growth in China spells trouble for its trading partners. But there is another worrisome development for ROW. China, after years of goading from IMF and US economists, is undertaking a policy shift in an attempt to change its economic growth paradigm.