by BERNAMA / pic credit: ADB

KUALA LUMPUR – The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has revised its economic growth outlook for developing Asia down slightly to 7.0 per cent this year and 5.3 per cent next year, after renewed outbreaks of COVID-19 led to slower growth in the third quarter.

The bank had previously estimated the region to grow 7.1 per cent this year and 5.4 per cent for 2022.

Acting chief economist Joseph Zveglich, Jr. said developing Asia’s steady progress in dealing with COVID-19, through continued vaccination drives and more strategic application of containment measures, helped boost growth prospects in the early part of the year.

“However, new outbreaks in the third quarter muted gross domestic product (GDP) growth, and the advent of the Omicron virus variant is causing renewed uncertainty.

“Recovery efforts will have to take these developments into consideration,” he said in a statement today.

Zveglich said the main risk to the growth outlook remains a resurgence in COVID-19 cases.

The average number of daily cases globally rose to almost 573,000 on Nov 30 from 404,000 on Oct 15.

For Southeast Asia’s 2021 outlook, he said it has been revised down by 0.1 percentage points to 3.0 per cent as economies in the subregion imposed targeted restrictions in the face of COVID-19’s Delta variant. 

“Next year’s growth forecast is increased to 5.1 per cent as economies are expected to continue easing overall restrictions and reviving economic activities. 

“The growth forecast for the Pacific is maintained at -0.6 per cent this year and revised slightly down to 4.7 per cent for 2022,” he added.