In this Asia Focus Video Andrew Robinson, Correspondent for Saxo Capital Markets in Singapore, looks at how Asia has started the year and specifically the growth, inflation and monetary policy outlook for China, the region’s power house.

He explains why the People’s Bank of China's flexibility to ease monetary policy further is slightly reduced following recent macro releases and how the upcoming Chinese New Year celebrations have played a role in skewing some data. This holiday season has a big impact on the economy every year as it virtually shuts things down for a few weeks. Therefore we will probably have to wait until February or even March when 'looney' distortions are well out of the way before we get a better feel for how the Chinese economy is developing, says Andrew. It is probably only then it can be properly determined if the People's Bank of China can continue down the easing track it began in December.

In the meantime Andrew doubts whether it is possible for China to maintain its overall 8 percent growth rate this year, and refers to his more pessimistic view of the economy growing by about 6 percent, as outlined in Saxo Bank's just published first quarter 2012 outlook. (See his detailed analysis in his report Q1 Asia Outlook: Fasten your seatbelts, we are about to land and download Saxo Bank's entire Q1 2012 Outlook.)

Also in this video Andrew comments on how Singapore (like other Asian economies so dependent on exports and Chinese growth) is struggling as recent retail sales data shows. He cites authorities' growth warnings and refers to how the slowdown is particularly hurting the Singapore tiger's large and very vulnerable electronics sector.

See more of Andrew's Asian market commentary on TradingFloor.com