THE 60TH COMMEMORATION OF ASIAN-AFRICAN CONFERENCE (19TH TO 24TH APRIL 2015) (1)

Asian Economy: Facts and Figures

by Syarif Hidayat*

Asian Development Bank (ADB)’s Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2015 projects that Developing Asia will grow at a steady 6.3% in 2015 and 2016, supported by a strengthening recovery in the major industrial economies and soft global commodity prices.

The drop in international oil prices is taking pressure off of consumer prices. Inflation will slow from 3.1% in 2014 to 2.6% in 2015.

As low oil prices are supporting growth in developing Asia, a sudden sharp reversal could undermine the outlook and require policy response. Similarly, while capital inflows to the region have been beneficial for growth, policy makers must carefully manage credit expansion to ensure that it does not lead to excessive leverage and asset price bubbles.

Developing Asia needs a deep, robust financial sector to sustain growth. Policy makers will be challenged to ensure that financial sector development is inclusive, providing broad access to households and firms. Financial stability must also be maintained to enhance growth and equity.

Developing Asia is expected to extend its steady growth. The region’s growth is projected to edge up from 6.1% in 2013 to 6.2% in 2014 and 6.4% in 2015. Moderating growth in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as its economy adjusts to more balanced growth will offset to some extent the stronger demand expected from the industrial countries as their economies recover.

Risks to the outlook have eased and are manageable. The monetary policy shift in the United States (US) may invite some volatility ahead in financial markets, albeit mitigated by accomodative monetary policy in Japan and the euro area. The regional growth outlook depends on continued recovery in the major industrial economies and on the PRC managing to contain internal credit growth smoothly.

Widening income gaps in developing Asia strengthens the case for greater use of fiscal policy to foster equality of opportunity. While the region has benefited from fiscal prudence in the past, demographic and environmental challenges are expected to compete for public resources in the coming years. To boost public spending on equity-enhancing programs such as education and health without undermining fiscal sustainability, the authorities will need to explore a wide range of options for mobilizing revenue and to build equity objectives into their fiscal plans.

The Economy of Asia comprises more than 4.4 billion people (60% of the world population) living in 49 different states. Six further states lie partly in Asia, but are considered to belong to another region economically and politically. Asia is the fastest growing economic region and the largest continental economy by GDP PPP in the world.

China is the largest economy in Asia and the second largest economy in the world. Moreover, Asia is the site of some of the world’s longest economic booms, starting from the Japanese economic miracle (1950-1990), Miracle of the Han River (1961-1996) in South Korea and the economic boom (1978-2013) in China.

As in all world regions, the wealth of Asia differs widely between, and within, states. This is due to its vast size, meaning a huge range of different cultures, environments, historical ties and government systems. The largest economies in Asia in terms of PPP gross domestic product (GDP) are China, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Thailand, Pakistan, Malaysia and Philippines and in terms of nominal gross domestic product (GDP) are China, Japan, Russia, India, South Korea, Indonesia, Turkey, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Iran, Malaysia and Singapore.

Wealth (if measured by GDP per capita) is mostly concentrated in the East Asian territories of Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brunei, and Taiwan, as well in oil rich countries in West Asia such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, and Oman. Israel and Turkey are notable exceptions: both lie in the territory of Asia despite not often being counted as such, and are also extremely wealthy nations and powerful economies. Asia, with the exception of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, is currently undergoing rapid growth and industrialization spearheaded by China and India, the two fastest growing major economies in the world.

While East Asian and Southeast Asian countries generally rely on manufacturing and trade for growth, countries in the Middle East depend more on the production of commodities, principally oil, for economic growth. Over the years, with rapid economic growth and large trade surplus with the rest of the world, Asia has accumulated over US$4 trillion of foreign exchange reserves – more than half of the world’s total.

Economy of Asia
Statistics
Population	4.2 billion (60% of the world)
GDP	Nominal: US$18.515 trillion (2010) PPP: US$24.077 trillion (2010)
GDP growth	Per capita: 7.9% (2010)[1]
GDP per capita	Nominal: US$4,629 (2009) PPP: US$7,041 (2009)
Millionaires (US$)	3.37 million (2011)[2]
Unemployment	3.8% (2010 est.)
Most numbers are from the International Monetary Fund. All values, unless otherwise stated, are in US dollars.

2008-present

In 2008, the Global Financial Crisis, triggered by the housing bubble in the United States, caused a significant decline in the GDP of the majority of the European economies but have spared the Asian economies, when at the same time also experience slowdown in the economic growths, particularly Japan, South Korea, and China, only to pick up back in their normal high growths at the end of the year.

The Arab Spring since 2011 had caused economic malaise in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, amongst the most adversely affected nations in the Middle East. At the same time, in early 2010s, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait registered high GDP growths in the years that followed due to increased oil prices and further diversification of exports, as well as rising Foreign exchange reserves.

In 2013, in a once-in-a-decade party leadership reshuffle in China (change of Hu-Wen Administration to Xi-Li Administration), the Chinese economy experienced a significant slowdown in the GDP growth, slowing down from the unprecedented decades of 9-10% annual growth to around 7-8%, which has significant effect in some developing economies, particularly in Southeast Asia and India, excluding the Philippines, which managed to grow at rates at par with China in the period 2012-2013. Philippines has been recently affected by the Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm on record, in November 2013, killing at least 5,200 and displacing millions more, although the disaster has a minimal effect on the country’s economy by the dawn of 2014.

On September 29, 2013, China opened the Shanghai Free-Trade Zone. This free trade zone allows international trade to be conducted with fewer restrictions and lower customs duties. The zone is tax free for the first ten years to encourage foreign direct investment (FDI) with a ‘negative list’ used to regulate in which fields foreign investments are prohibited. The free trade zone allows for free exchange of the heavily regulated Chinese currency the yuan. Additionally, the zone provides financial support that benefits overseas investments for both individuals and business entities and opens the door for overseas financing which allows Chinese businesses to obtain foreign loans at lower interest rates.

Future

Asia’s large economic disparities are a source of major continuing tension in the region. While global economic powers China, Japan, India, and South Korea continue powering through, and Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Sri Lanka have entered the path to long-term growth, regions right next to these countries are in severe need of assistance.

Given the large number cheap and amply available labor in the region, particularly in China and India, where large workforces provide an economical advantage over other countries, the rising standard of living will eventually lead to a slow-down. Asia is also riddled with political problems that threaten not just the economies, but the general stability of the region and world. The nuclear neighbors—Pakistan and India—constantly pose a threat to each other, causing their governments to heavily invest in military spending.

Military intervention by the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan has also inflamed extremism and resulted in several terrorist attacks in a number of Asian countries. Another impending crisis is the depletion of oil reserves in the Middle East. Most of these economies have traditionally been over-dependent on oil and have had difficulty establishing another pillar in their economies.

Yet another potential global danger posed by the economy of Asia is the growing accumulation of foreign exchange reserves. The countries/regions with the largest foreign reserves are mostly in Asia – China (Mainland – $2,454 billion & Hong Kong – $245 billion, June 2010), Japan ($1,019 billion, June 2009), Russia ($456 billion, April 2010), India ($284 billion, July 2010), Taiwan ($372 billion, September 2010), the Republic of Korea ($286 billion, July 2010), Singapore ($206 billion, July 2010). This increasingly means that the interchangeability of the Euro, USD, and GBP are heavily influenced by Asian central banks. Some economists in the western countries see this as a bad thing, prompting their respective governments to take action.

According to the World Bank, China may become the largest economy in the world sometime between 2020 and 2030, while India may become the second largest economy in the world sometime between 2030 and 2035.

Based on Hurun Report, for the first time in 2012 Asia surpassed North America in amount of billionaires. More than 40 percent or 608 billionaires came from Asia, where as North America had 440 billionaires and Europe with 324 billionaires.

Asian countries by GDP

This is a list of Asian countries sorted by their 2013 gross domestic product at market or government official exchange rates (nominal GDP) and PPP map is for year 2013.

2013 Nominal GDP and PPP list by the International Monetary Fund (sortable; in billions of $US)

Country or territory	GDP nominal millions of USD	GDP PPP millions of USD	GDP PPP per capita USD	Location
Afghanistan	20.736	35.146	1,150	South Asia
Armenia	10.547	20.352	6,191	West Asia
Azerbaijan	73.537	102.811	11,044	West Asia
Bahrain	32.215	40.610	34,584	West Asia
Bangladesh	161.76	496.00	3,167	South Asia
Bhutan	1.985	4.745	6,370	South Asia
Brunei	16.214	21.690	53,431	Southeast Asia
Burma	56.408	112.972	1,739	Southeast Asia
Cambodia	15.659	39.690	2,576	Southeast Asia
China (PRC)	9,181.377	13,395.396	9,844	East Asia
Cyprus	21.827	22.271	25,265	West Asia
East Timor	6.147	25.772	21,705	Southeast Asia
Georgia	16.162	27.552	6,145	West Asia
Hong Kong SAR of China	273.658	381.918	52,722	East Asia
India	1,870.651	5,069.158	4,077	South Asia
Indonesia	870.275	1,292.848	5,214	Southeast Asia
Iran	366.259	945.518	12,264	West Asia
Iraq	229.327	257.036	7,391	West Asia
Israel	291.500	273.671	34,770	West Asia
Japan	4,901.532	4,698.805	36,899	East Asia
Jordan	33.860	40.016	6,115	West Asia
Kazakhstan	220.347	246.904	14,391	Central Asia
North Korea	28.000	40.000	1,900	East Asia
South Korea	1,221.801	1,666.755	33,189	East Asia
Kuwait	185.319	154.460	39,706	West Asia
Kyrgyzstan	7.225	14.733	2,611	Central Asia
Laos	10.002	20.777	3,068	Southeast Asia
Lebanon	44.318	66.318	14,845	West Asia
Macau SAR of China	22.100	18.470	59,451	East Asia
Malaysia	312.433	525.698	17,748	Southeast Asia
Maldives	2.276	3.086	9,173	South Asia
Mongolia	11.516	17.064	5,885	East Asia
Nepal	19.341	42.112	1,508	South Asia
Oman	80.571	94.986	29,813	West Asia
Pakistan	238.737	575.049	3,149	South Asia
Papua New Guinea	15.973	19.828	2,834	Southeast Asia
Philippines	272.018	643.01	6,597	Southeast Asia
Qatar	202.651	199.638	98,814	West Asia
Russia	2,118.006	2,556.203	17,884	North Asia
Saudi Arabia	745.273	937.163	31,245	West Asia
Singapore	295.744	348.700	64,584	Southeast Asia
Sri Lanka	65.833	135.979	6,531	South Asia
Syria	59.633	105.324	5,108	West Asia
Taiwan	489.213	929.495	39,767	East Asia
Tajikistan	8.497	19.142	2,354	Central Asia
Thailand	387.156	673.725	9,874	Southeast Asia
Turkey	827.209	1,174.229	15,353	West Asia
Turkmenistan	40.569	54.246	9,510	Central Asia
United Arab Emirates	396.235	272.027	30,122	West Asia
Uzbekistan	56.476	113.755	3,762	Central Asia
Vietnam	170.565	359.796	4,012	Southeast Asia
Yemen	39.152	61.752	2,316	West Asia

(T/P3/P2)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)

*Senior Editor of Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) (He can be contacted via emails: [email protected] and [email protected])

Bibliotheque:

1.International News Agencies
2.International Online Media Information
3.International Monetary Fund (IMF) Reports
4.World Bank Reports
5.Asian Development Bank (ADB) Reports
6.The UN reports