Global uncertainties could hinder Asean's growth, says World Bank economist

The Star

A World Bank senior economist says geopolitics, economic headwinds, and policy uncertainties are the three main risk factors confronting Asean.  Speaking at a panel discussion at the Asean Economic Opinion Leaders Conference: Outlook for 2025 on Thursday (Jan 9), Aakash Mohpal highlighted that slower growth in China has also affected economic growth in Asean.  Read more at https://bit.ly/40psFnv  WATCH MORE: https://thestartv.com/c/news SUBSCRIBE: https://cutt.ly/TheStar LIKE: https://fb.com/TheStarOnline

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00:00...economy, geopolitics, finance that are building up and...

00:05The recent distressing events in the Middle East, namely the Israel-Gaza war, conflict,

00:11has distressed significant economic consequences.

00:17For example, transport has been disrupted.

00:20Before, the ships travelling from ASEAN to the West and vice versa,

00:25would traverse from the Suez Canal.

00:27But now they have to take a long winding route around the Cape of Good Hope,

00:31and shipping costs as a result are 40% higher.

00:35Any escalation or a lack of immediate resolution of the conflict

00:41worries us that the prices of essentials like oil and other demand for exports

00:49might be affected from the ASEAN region.

00:54At the same time, as a second risk, we know that China has been a powerful engine of growth globally.

01:02In this graph, what you see in the orange dot and the right axis is China's growth rate.

01:09And the red bars are the effect of China's growth rate on other developing economies.

01:16So when growth in China slows down, growth in other developing economies,

01:21including ASEAN, also slows down.

01:25So these are the economic uncertainties that we have to deal with.

01:29And finally, there are policy uncertainties.

01:33Worldwide, we have seen an increase in trade distorting measures.

01:38These take the form of subsidies, export-related subsidies, other tariffs, and so on and so forth.

01:46And these are going to affect future growth in the region.

01:51So what do we recommend needs to happen to insulate ASEAN and East Asian Pacific region from these risks?

02:01It's deeper trade agreements and a program of domestic reforms which really build resilience towards this.

02:16For more UN videos visit www.un.org

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