In early 2021, the consensus forecast for Chinese gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year among 25 major global banks and other professional forecasters was 8.3 percent. In contrast, the Chinese government’s own growth target was around six percent, lower than the best guesses of 24 out of the 25 institutional forecasters. Did the government know something that outsiders had missed?

The Philippine economy will take more than a decade to return to pre-pandemic growth, an official said Thursday, warning the next two generations of Filipinos would be paying for the cost of COVID-19.

In the second quarter of 2021, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 7.9 percent year on year. That was a relatively strong performance, especially given the enduring effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy. But, for China, it represents a disappointment: a Caixin survey of economists showed the median estimate for the second quarter was 8.2 percent growth. Chinese economists broadly agree that China’s potential growth rate is six percent.

The World Bank’s Global Economic Prospects (GEP) report, published twice a year, is the most important source for evaluating the current and future outlook for emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs). The recently released June edition is especially significant because of the warnings it contains. Someone reading this report too quickly could easily miss the bad news, because, as with all publications by international organizations, it comes sugar-coated.

China’s recently released population census confirms the persistence of the country’s alarming excess of males relative to the global norm. This numerical imbalance from birth onward has several significant economic implications – and not only for China. Because women live longer than men on average, most countries’ populations have more females than males. In the United States (US), for example, there were 96 males per 100 females in 2020.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has raised its growth forecast for developing Asia this year on the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and the strength of global export demand, but warned that resurgent virus outbreaks threatened the recovery.China and India are expected to lead the rebound across the vast region stretching from the Cook Islands in the Pacific to Kazakhstan in Central Asia, the lender said Wednesday. The Philippines-based ADB predicted growth of 7.3 percent, compared with

China’s economy posted a record growth rate in the first quarter compared with the same period last year, when the country was in the midst of a crushing lockdown to control the spread of the coronavirus.But compared with the last quarter of 2020, the growth rate slowed, official figures show, raising questions about the strength of the recovery over the rest of this year.

COVID-19 vaccination programs are gaining momentum as production capacity ramps up, and as disorganised and tentative distribution and administration procedures are replaced by more robust systems. A task of this size will surely encounter additional bumps along the road.

Many parts of Asia seem to be emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic relatively well. But overcoming the public-health crisis is only one challenge the region faces.

This November will mark the 20th anniversary of the BRIC acronym that I coined to capture the economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India, and China.