Asian Development Bank President Takehiko Nakao said on Thursday that despite the fears about a global economic slowdown, the Asian emergent economies are still set to grow “in a very steady way.” He attributed this growth to higher consumption and investment levels.
Nakao said that the ideas about a global economic slowdown “may be true especially for advanced economies — but, as far as Asia is concerned, it is still growing very steadily." The Bank already foresaw an economic growth of 5.7 percent (annual) for developing Asia (that comprises about 45 countries) in 2019 and is expected to slightly decline in 2020, foreseeing a 5.6 percent economic growth.
The trade war between the United States and China is among the risk factors that are currently shaping emergent Asia’s economic performance, and it was among the biggest factors that slowed the region’s economic growth during 2018. Whether this conflict will have or not a resolution is still not clear and it may keep dragging Asia's economic performance in the future.
Chinese Signals are Confusing
Chinese data remains confusing to analysts. While the Shanghai stock market has a solid performance, it has been trading mixed recently, and weak factory data and disappointing earnings data attributed to Chinese economic weakness are just adding more to the uncertainty among the investors and the analysts.
China is already taking care of its economic issues and announced a stimulus package. They claimed they were planning to cut $297 billion in taxes, have been pushing lending and are aiming for more foreign investment.
The possibility of reaching a trade deal with the United States is also on the horizon, a fact that has been helping the markets lately. However as previously mentioned, it's still not clear whether a resolution will be reached or not, and concerns about the near trade deal enforcement mechanisms are still.