KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 – Growth for countries in ASEAN is forecast to be at a robust 4.6 per cent this year and 4.7 per cent in 2025, largely supported by strong domestic demand and exports, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Friday.
In its “Outlook for Asia and the Pacific: Resilient Growth but Higher Risks” report, it said Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam are all projected to grow robustly (five per cent and above for the two years), while activity in Thailand remains more subdued (2.8 per cent growth in 2024 and 3.0 per cent growth in 2025).
Meanwhile, the IMF has revised its forecast for Malaysia’s real gross domestic product (GDP) growth for this year to 4.8 per cent from 4.4 per cent in April, while keeping its projection of 4.4 per cent growth in 2025 unchanged.
The financial institution said despite the China-United States (US) trade tensions, ASEAN has continued to strengthen trade and investment links with both China and the US.
“Moreover, the ASEAN economies appear to have found ways to capture export opportunities generated by Chinese and US tariffs,” it said.
The IMF said growth in Asia is forecast to slow to 4.6 per cent in 2024 and 4.4 per cent in 2025 from 5.0 per cent last year, reflecting fading support from the pandemic recovery and secular factors like population aging.
However, it said short-term prospects are somewhat more favourable than described in its April 2024 “Regional Economic Outlook: Asia and the Pacific” report.
IMF said regional growth in 2024 has been revised up marginally by 0.1 percentage point to 4.6 per cent, primarily reflecting the robust performance early in the year.
“With this, the Asia and Pacific region is expected to contribute roughly 60 per cent to global growth this year. Strength remains concentrated in emerging market economies.
