THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) is more concerned about the region’s double-digit inflation levels and does not believe the current financial crisis in the US and Europe could drag Asia into the credit crunch.

Rajat Nag, ADB managing director general, said on Wednesday that Asia may not be totally insulated from the financial meltdown in the US and Europe, but that there are systemic problems such the rising inequality of the rich and the poor that plague the region.

That problem and the current tide of inflation are more worrisome to the ADB than the current financial crisis, Nag said.

“The housing bust” in the US “will not happen in Asia because there’s no boom to begin with,” Nag said, adding that most financial institutions in the region are “fairly conservative” in their approach to credit.

The financial crisis “will have no foreseeable risk in the near term” in Asia, he said.

Asia should be able to deal with the crisis much better if they put their resources on the table, the ADB official said.

“Asia should focus on domestic consumption… as inflation will be a greater challenge that will affect the region’s growth’s prospects,”  Nag concluded.

Neeraj Jain, ADB country director for the Philippines, said the Arroyo administration’s effort to change its fiscal structure for the better augurs well for the country to ride the wave.

Jain underscored the money remitted by more than 8 million Filipinos overseas, which is expected to reach more than $15 billion this year.

The country’s inflation, on the other hand, despite having tapered off to 11.9 percent last month from 12.5 percent in August, is a cause for concern.

The National Statistics Office said that inflation slowed down due to slower annual price hikes of food, beverage and tobacco and services items that are heavily weighted in the consumer price index.

Still, the inflation rate of 11.9 percent last September is significantly higher than the 2.7 percent recorded a year earlier.

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