Joann Muller of Forbes: Thank You, Asia

The survival of General Motors presently depends on the growth of overseas market, particularly of Asia’s market, as the chart below shows. That’s what Ms. Joann Muller of Forbes recently pointed out…

From Ms. Muller (emphasis mine),

``Well, at least they love General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) overseas. While the automaker's North American sales have dropped hard in the last three years, they've been soaring abroad, particularly in developing markets like China, India and parts of Latin America. Last year 60% of the vehicles it sold (9.4 million) were bought abroad, up from half just two years ago.

``For now, the global operations are carrying the company. GM made $2.1 billion in pretax operating profit last year, almost enough to offset the $2.7 billion it lost selling cars and home mortgages in North America. It's a revolution, just not an American Revolution.”

Of course yesterday’s sales composition may not be the same for tomorrow. But it would seem that GM’s overseas sales could serve as an important indicator of how today turbulent credit markets will likely impact Asian consumption as well as the other emerging markets.

All this goes to show how the world has been changing from a unipolar US centric growth dynamic to that of a multipolar one.

(hat tip forbes.com)