Daily Times

Developing Asia’s already slowing economic growth is set to weaken even more sharply this year, hit by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic before it bounces back strongly next year, the Asian Develpoment Bank (ADB) said on Friday.

The Manila-based lender said its baseline forecast called for growth in developing Asia, a group of 45 economies that includes China and India, to slow to 2.2% in 2020 from a previous forecast of 5.2%, matching last year. “This will be the lowest growth that developing Asia will have seen in 22 years, or since the Asian financial crisis,” said Abdul Abiad, director of ADB’s macroeconomic research division.

For 2021, the region is forecast to recover and grow 6.2%, the ADB said in its Asian Development Outlook report.

It more than halved its growth estimate for China, where the virus surfaced in December, to 2.3% this year from 5.8% previously, citing dismal economic activity in the first two months of the year. But growth in the world’s second-largest economy is expected to rebound strongly to 7.3% in 2021, the ADB said.

After the health crisis brought China’s economy to a virtual halt in the first quarter, an ever-growing number of countries and territories have reported a spike in infections and deaths, leading to widespread travel bans and stay-at-home orders.