Asian economies to rival Europe soon, survey says

Asia, its economies supercharged with the fastest sustained growth in world history, will overtake Europe as an economic power in the 1990s, Newsweek magazine said in a year-end report.

''Asia has already surged ahead of Europe as the No. 1 commercial partner of the United States, the world's No. 1 trading nation,'' said the report published Sunday. The report noted that Hong Kong now ranks as the world's third leading financial market, trailing London and New York. And, Newsweek said, ''lists of the 500 largest international companies show more entries from South Korea than from Italy . . . and Singapore's per capita income virtually matches that of Britain.