ADB: Emerging Asian countries key to global growth

In its latest Asian Development Outlook, published this month, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said the group of emerging economies in Asia will be the main driver of global growth over the next two years. Asia-Pacific may ease slightly in 2017 and 2018 but the region will remain the single largest contributor to global expansion, according to the Asian Development Outlook 2017: Transcending the Middle-Income Challenge.

“Excluding the high-income newly industrialised economies of South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong, regional growth is expected to reach 6.3 per cent in 2017 and 6.2 per cent in 2018,” the report said. ADB Chief Economist Yasuyuki Sawada pointed out that “Asia Pacific will still account for an estimated 60 per cent of global economic growth” in the years ahead despite the region – and particularly China – adjusting to a more consumption-driven model.

Bambang Susantono, Vice President of the ADB, will speak at Asia House on 28 April.