Malaysia economy likely returned to growth in q4, omicron a threat: Poll
Malaysia’s economy likely bounced back to growth in the final quarter of 2021, propelled by strong exports and private investments, but the fast-spreading Omicron coronavirus variant poses a threat to the outlook, a Reuters poll found. Growth in Southeast Asia’s third-largest economy rebounded last quarter to 3.3 percent year-on-year after shrinking 4.5 percent in the July to September period, according to the median forecast of 20 economists polled from Feb 3 to Feb 8. Forecasts for the change in gross domestic product (GDP), due to be released on Friday (Feb 11), ranged from 1.5 percent to 6.3 percent, highlighting uncertainty over the pandemic’s impact on output and activity.
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China’s most productive provinces and cities as per 2021 GDP statistics
China’s GDP in 2021 reached RMB 114.4 trillion (US$17.7 trillion), showing an increase of about RMB 13 trillion (US$3 trillion) compared to 2020, or 8.1 percent growth year-on-year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Authorities have also unveiled data tracking the economic performance of 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government for 2021. With global headwinds and COVID-linked uncertainties dampening China’s economic growth outlook in 2022, it is easy to feel pessimistic. That’s why we take a closer look at the growth rates of prominent provinces and major cities in China in this article – to gain sense of what is happening on the ground and whether the country continues to be a favored investment destination. In 2021, the economic output of many provinces reached a new high. Among others, Guangdong’s GDP exceeded RMB 12 trillion for the first time – reaching RMB 12.44 trillion (approx. US$1.92 trillion) and registering eight percent growth year-on-year.
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Beating expectations, Indonesia’s economy grows 5pc in q4
Indonesia’s economic growth accelerated in the final quarter of last year following the easing of anti-virus mobility restrictions and record-high exports, driven by stronger commodity prices. Southeast Asia’s largest economy grew 5.02 percent on a yearly basis in the October-December quarter, compared with 3.51 percent growth in the previous quarter, data from Statistics Indonesia showed on Monday. A Reuters news agency poll had expected fourth-quarter growth of 4.90 percent. For the whole of 2021, gross domestic product expanded 3.69 percent annually, compared with a 2.07 percent contraction the year before, as the country recovered from the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The price of Modi’s economic incompetence
With India now in its 75th year of independence, perhaps the biggest disappointment has been the country’s failure to become an economic powerhouse. In more confident times, back in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken of building a $5 trillion Indian economy by 2025. But with three years to go, and India’s GDP currently $3.1 trillion, it is difficult to find anyone who still believes he can achieve this goal. India was supposed to benefit economically from what Modi called the country’s “3D” advantage – demographics, democracy, and demand. In particular, India would reap a “demographic dividend” owing to its youthful population: the median age in India is 28, compared to 37 in China and the United States and 49 in Japan, and more than two-thirds of its 1.4 billion people are of working age.
Instead, the economy has been stumbling, with GDP growth decelerating each year from 2017 to 2020, inflation rising, and unemployment reaching a record 23.5 percent in April 2020. India currently has 53 million unemployed people, and its labor force participation rate has declined from 58 percent in 2005 to just 40 percent in 2021
– one of the lowest levels in the world.
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Bangladesh sees 6.94pc economic growth in 2020-21 fiscal year
The Bangladeshi economy grew at 6.94 percent in the 2020-21 fiscal year (July 2020-June 2021) with improvement in both services and manufacturing sectors despite the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bangladeshi Planning Minister, M.A. Mannan on Tuesday announced the gross domestic product (GDP) data released by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.
He told a press conference that the economic growth exceeded the government’s provisional estimate of 5.43 percent for the last fiscal year, Xinhua news agency reported.
The gross national income per capita rose to $2,591 last fiscal year from $2,326 the previous 2019-20 fiscal year.
The Minister said the actual size of the country’s GDP expanded to $416 billion last fiscal year.
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Japan’s economy watcher sentiment registers sharpest decline in decade
The diffusion index of confidence, a business sentiment indicator for the Japanese economy, logged the steepest plunge in over a decade in January amid concerns fueled by COVID-19 infection resurgence, Japanese government statistics showed Tuesday.
The figure, which measures the current business confidence compared to three months ago among “economy watchers,” workers with jobs sensitive to economic trends like taxi drivers and restaurant staff, decreased 19.6 points from December to 37.9, according to the Cabinet Office.
It marked the sharpest fall since March 2011, when a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami disaster hit northeast Japan.
The office polled 2,050 workers on Jan. 25-31, and 1,839, or 89.7 percent of the poll, responded.
A reading above 50 of the figure indicated that business sentiment is inclined to feel that conditions are improving rather than worsening.
In January, the diffusion index fell in all of Japan’s regions, as most of the country was placed under a quasi-state of emergency amid surging COVID-19 infections due to the rapid spread of the Omicron variant.