Asia powers ahead amid global uncertainty

CGTN Europe

Asia's economies are set to remain the global growth engine in 2025, despite geopolitical tensions and economic headwinds. The Asia House Annual Outlook 2025, launched on Thursday in London, spotlights the resilience of the region's economy.  China’s ambassador to the UK, Zheng Zeguang, emphasized his country's contributions during his address at the launch. CGTN’s Li Jianhua reports.   Read more: https://tinyurl.com/yrftwbex   #Asia #Economy

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00:00Asia's economic growth is set to outperform the rest of the world in 2025.

00:05At least that's the prediction from the London-based independent think tank Asia House,

00:10which has released its annual economic outlook.

00:13Now, this comes despite the risk of a potential trade war and volatile global markets.

00:18Our correspondent Li Junhua is following the story and joins us now in studio.

00:22So, Junhua, tell us more about this report.

00:24Well, Sally, I think two key words, growth and uncertainty.

00:28And as Jamie just said in the opening,

00:30that Asia's economy is set to dominate the economic growth all across the world,

00:35outperform the rest of the world in terms of GDP growth.

00:39So, GDP is expected to average about 4 percent,

00:44much higher than the global average 2 percent predicted by the WTO trade organization.

00:51So, who are the top performers this year?

00:54India, Vietnam and the Philippines are expected to lead with growth rates exceeding 6 percent.

01:00And China always gets the most attention.

01:02And this year, China's economic growth rate is forecast to reach 4 percent.

01:07And depending on the effectiveness of its stimulus measures,

01:10which are highly likely to happen according to the report,

01:13but we wouldn't be able to find out until the two sessions in March this year and every year.

01:18The incoming Trump administration is another factor that could influence China's economic performance this year.

01:25What's more interesting this year is non-aligned nations are benefiting from China-US competition in the tech sector.

01:33And these two countries are Singapore and Malaysia.

01:35And Asia's export-driven economies are likely to face challenges

01:40if Trump's threats of imposing tariffs across the board materializes.

01:45And the report's lead author said to me that we probably should pay more attention to these three countries,

01:51Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand, because a lot of their exports are destined for the United States.

01:57Closer to home, China-UK relations have been in the spotlight

02:01with the rather controversial visit of the UK finance minister's visit to China a few days ago.

02:07What's the current state of play? What's the relationship like at the moment, would you say?

02:12I think according to the ambassador, critical is the word.

02:15The ambassador touched upon a lot of other topics, including China's economy, the past year and this year,

02:22its trade ties with other countries and regions and regional conflicts and China-UK relations in particular.

02:29The ambassador started the speech with a very, very positive notes, actually, on China-UK relations,

02:36referencing Rachel Roof's recent visit to China.

02:40He also highlighted that the annual bilateral trade between the two countries,

02:44if you also include the trade volume between the UK and Hong Kong, is exceeding US$13 billion.

02:51He emphasized now it is a critical juncture for China-UK trade ties. Let's take a listen.

02:57Our focus should be on cooperation instead of challenging each other or competing with each other.

03:07We do have differences on certain issues, but they can always be properly handled in the spirit of mutual respect.

03:16When the chancellor, when she was in Beijing, she told our people that the UK government has put economic growth at the centre.

03:30So we hope the Labour government can also put economic cooperation at the centre and let's focus on cooperation.

03:42China-UK ties have witnessed more high-level exchanges ever since Labour came to power in July last year

03:50and according to the ambassador, both sides are moving on the right trajectory.

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