In a press briefing this week, Asian Development Bank Chief Economist Albert Park dropped something of a geopolitical bombshell: China is growing slower than Asia’s developing economies for the first time in more than three decades.
- Asian Development Bank now sees growth among emerging Asian economies of 4.3% in 2022 and 4.9% in 2023.
- ADB expects the rest of developing Asia excluding China to grow by 5.3% in both 2022 and 2023, while it now expects China to grow by 3.3% in 2022, lower than revised forecasts released in July.
- This will be the first time in more than three decades that the rest of developing Asia will grow faster than China, the report said.
Asia’s developing economies may be showing signs of recovery, but the Asian Development Bank (ADB) cut its growth forecasts for them yet again — thanks to China’s prolonged zero-Covid policy.
But this will be the first time in more than three decades that the rest of developing Asia will grow faster than China, the Manila-based lender said in its latest outlook report released Wednesday.
“The last time was in 1990, when (China’s) growth slowed to 3.9% while GDP in the rest of the region expanded by 6.9%,” it said.
The ADB now expects developing Asia — excluding China — to grow by 5.3% in 2022, and China by 3.3% in the same year.
Both figures are further downgrades — in July, for example, it slashed its growth forecast for China to 4% from 5%. The ADB attributed that to sporadic lockdowns from the nation’s zero-Covid policy, problems in the property sector, and slowing economic activity in light of weaker external demand.
It also lowered its 2023 forecast for China’s economic growth to 4.5% from April’s 4.8% outlook on “deteriorating external demand continuing to dampen investment in manufacturing.”