Monday, September 26, 2022

What is the Asian Development Bank’s new report about?

The pace of economic growth in China is falling rapidly - this is indicated by the published forecast of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) regarding the economic situation in the region. The document states that China’s gross domestic product (GDP) this year will increase by only 3.3 percent compared to 2021.

The forecast was downgraded by 1.7 percentage points compared to the bank’s previous report in April.

In today’s report, ADB attributes the slowdown in China’s growth, in part, to the impact of Beijing’s crackdown on the spread of the coronavirus. “China’s leadership is pursuing a policy of zero tolerance for infections, and this has largely led to the disruption of supply chains in industry, caused chaos in production,” ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa said in an interview with the Japanese TV channel NHK. “China has structural problems in the economy medium and long term. He needs to build a new economic system with the understanding that the country will probably not be able to quickly return to high economic growth.”

But India is doing well. In the bank’s report, the forecast for its GDP growth, however, was also lowered by 0.5 points. However, in general, in 2022, it is predicted to increase GDP by 7 percent.

In general, the bank’s experts believe that the total gross domestic product of developing countries in the Asia-Pacific region will increase by 4.3 percent compared to the previous year. This forecast was also downgraded by 0.9 points due to the impact of slower growth in China and rising global inflation.

ADB reports traditionally do not take into account data on Japan and other economically developed countries in the region. They summarize information on 45 developing countries and territories from the Transcaucasus and the former Central Asian republics of the USSR to the Pacific Ocean. The Asian Development Bank was established in 1966, is based in Manila and is engaged in concessional lending to various projects that help strengthen the region’s economy. The largest recipients of ADB financing are Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, China, Pakistan, and the Philippines.