Asia-Pacific's 2008 economic prospects made uncertain by US subprime crisis, think tank says

The economic outlook for the Asia-Pacific region is the most uncertain it has been since the 1997-98 financial crisis because of a possible spillover from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, a regional think tank said Thursday.

But the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council predicted that the U.S. economy would not enter a recession and that the troubled American housing market will recover by the second-half of 2008.

An annual report by the Singapore-based PECC, which groups more than 20 economies stretching across the Pacific from Australia and China to Chile and Canada, was "cautiously optimistic" about the region's outlook, projecting economic …