This is my last Asia column before I have to retire from the Financial Times, after 39 years. It is an opportunity to draw together some lessons and impressions gathered while covering the region and to explode the odd myth. I shall also hazard a few predictions.

First, not all east Asia is an economic miracle: today, it is overwhelmingly a China story. China has generated more than half the growth in developing Asia, including India, this century. A surprisingly large number of other countries have performed disappointingly. Japan, the region's largest economy, is still re-emerging from its lost decade. South Korea, the third largest, is floundering. Taiwan and Thailand are performing below their potential.