Asia to grow as expected in 2018 and 2019, trade war poses downside risks - ADB

The Manila-based institution, Asian Development Bank released an update of its Asian Development Outlook on Wednesday, with the key highlights found below (courtesy Reuters).

“ADB maintained its 2018 and 2019 economic growth estimates for the region at 6.0 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively.

The ADB also kept its 6.6 percent and 6.3 percent growth projections for China as well as its 7.3 percent and 7.6 percent growth expectations for India for both years.

The 2019 growth outlook for Central Asia was raised to 4.3 percent, from the September projection of 4.2 percent, the ADB said, but the forecasts for Southeast Asia and South Asia for next year were lowered to 5.1 percent and 7.1 percent, respectively.

Easing commodity prices and central bank policy actions could cause the pace of inflation in developing Asia to settle at 2.6 percent this year and to 2.7 percent in 2019, down from its 2.8 forecast in September for both years.”