It was reported recently that the ASEAN +3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) had given Myanmar’s economy a positive outlook for the fiscal year of 2019 to 2020, expecting it to expand by 7.1 percent up from 6.8 percent in the previous fiscal year.
COVID-19 lockdowns may be gradually easing, but anxiety about the world’s social and economic prospects is only intensifying. There is good reason to worry: a sharp economic downturn has already begun, and we could be facing the worst depression since the 1930s.
Shuffling around their tiny slum home which is too small to stand up in, Thanapat Noidee and his wife Papassorn share donated noodles with their sons and worry about bills, as the coronavirus pushes Thailand's poor deeper into penury.The wood and breeze-block hut which is their home stands in the heart of a Bangkok commercial district festooned with five-star hotels and upmarket restaurants.They share the small space in the shadow of the nearby high-rise developments with their children
Thailand's premier on Wednesday urged parliament to approve the kingdom's biggest-ever stimulus package to revive an economy battered by coronavirus, which has brought tourism to a standstill, slashed exports and left millions jobless. The THB1.9 trillion (US$59.6 billion) package would be a much-needed financial boost for Southeast Asia's second biggest economy, which is expected to shrink by 5-6 percent in 2020. Members of parliament - who inaugurated a new
Indonesia made history just two years ago by reaching the milestone of a single-digit poverty rate for the first time since its independence in 1945. The percentage of those below the poverty line – with incomes of less than US$2.50 per day – fell below 10 percent (9.82 percent) at the national level for the first time in March 2018. Following the COVID pandemic, there is concern that poverty could once again rise and reverse years of positive work.
ASEAN member states have a unique opportunity to meaningfully address the digital gender divide through their COVID-19 recovery plans.
The coronavirus pandemic could cut up to 9.7 percent off the global economy, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said last Friday, doubling its previous estimate as the virus stifles trade and leaves millions jobless.The estimated impact would cost as much as US$8.8 trillion based on a range of scenarios, but ADB said government interventions could help offset the losses inflicted by the crisis.
Manila's malls set air conditioners to warm and switched off free Wi-Fi to stop people lingering as many of them cautiously reopened on Saturday, after a two-month lockdown that brought the sprawling hubs of community life to a halt.Just a trickle of customers showed up at the huge commercial centres in the Philippine capital, which usually attract millions of people each day and often contain churches, restaurants, gyms and event spaces."This is good for me, this is good for our ec
Malaysia's economy grew at its slowest pace in more than a decade during the first three months of the year as the coronavirus pandemic battered the country, but still managed to beat forecasts, data showed Wednesday.Gross domestic product grew 0.7 percent on-year in January-March, the central bank reported, compared with 3.6 percent growth in the previous quarter.It was the worst figure since the economy shrank in 2009 during the global financial crisis, but strong domestic consumption
The COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the fragility of the world order. Governments have sought to limit the spread of the virus through lockdowns and travel restrictions, which have stalled economies and created a global recession. Poorer countries, lacking the resources and resilience to mitigate the pandemic, will be hit hardest. Like climate change, COVID-19 will exacerbate global inequalities.That parallel offers valuable lessons.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” George Santayana famously quipped in 1905. It is a phrase that has been repeated for over a century, but rarely heeded. As COVID-19 decimates the global economy, our understanding of history could be the difference between a V- or U-shaped recession and a W-shaped one, in which incipient recovery is followed by successive relapses.As recently as March, V-shaped recoveries in individual economies seemed plausible.
Running parallel to the global battle against the coronavirus pandemic is a tug of war between two competing narratives about how the world ought to be governed. Although addressing the pandemic is more urgent, which narrative prevails will have equally far-reaching consequences.The first narrative is straightforward: a global health crisis has further demonstrated the need for multilateralism and exposed the fallacy of go-it-alone nationalism or isolationism.
