Asia, whose economic resilience was in part meant to be guaranteed by booming regional trade, is confronting growing signs that such trade remains much more dependent on western demand than previously hoped.

Michael Buchanan, Asia chief economist at Goldman Sachs, says the dramatic fall in Chinese imports from other Asian countries in January shows that Chinese consumers have not replaced their US and European counterparts. Instead, he says a lot of intra-Asian trade still “smells a lot of just supply-chain dynamics” feeding exports to other regions.