AI Investments to Drive Developing Asia Growth
The Asian Development Bank says that growing Asia has a springboard for consistent economic growth in 2024 and 2025 amid rising global investments in artificial intelligence(AI) and declining inflation.
In its Asian Development Outlook for September 2024, the ADB anticipates inflation in the Philippines decreasing to 3.6 percent in 2024, from its April forecast of 3.8 percent.
According to the ADB, this results from food price hikes continuing to slow down, partly because import taxes on rice have been lowered.
"High-income technology exporters benefited as global sales of semiconductors rose amid strong demand for artificial intelligence products from China, Taiwan, and South Korea," says ADB chief economist Albert Park.
In China, where food prices bottomed out later than expected, the bank lowered its inflation forecast for the region this year to 2.8 percent from 3.2 percent in April.
The inflation forecast for 2025 was also revised downward to 2.9 percent from 3.0 percent earlier this year, and conditions are now in place for eventual monetary easing to support economic activity.
The protracted real estate sector slump weighed on consumer confidence and household spending, but this was partially offset by increased investment supported by monetary and fiscal stimulus
Non-electronics exports are also growing, albeit more slowly, according to the Asian Development Outlook, a biannual publication by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). However, the ADB predicts that Beijing will fall short of its target of five percent growth in 2024, projecting 4.8 percent growth.
China's economy, which grew 5.2 percent last year, is expected to grow 4.5 percent in 2025. The protracted real estate sector slump weighed on consumer confidence and household spending, but this was partially offset by increased investment supported by monetary and fiscal stimulus.