This paper makes extensive use of the Summers and Heston data set on p
er capita product covering the period 1950-90 for some 150 economies t
o examine their growth performance. It turns out that the five east As
ian economies. Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand have achieved
consistently high growth in per capita product. This paper is the fir
st of a planned series on the east Asian economies. The next in the se
ries will focus on the current economic crisis enveloping large tracts
of east and south-east Asia.