Asia Economy

Weaker agricultural output and high inflation helped curb growth in the Philippine economy in 2018, though the rate of expansion still outpaced most other countries in the region.

Increasing levels of private consumption and investment, backed by the government’s infrastructure programmes, helped Thailand’s economy expand in 2018, although a decline in external demand and lower tourism receipts are expected to dampen full-year growth.

Although Myanmar’s economy has grown above the regional average in 2018, a fall in overseas investment, crop losses and a weakening of the kyat have combined to slow the pace of that economic growth. However, moves to open up sectors of the economy to foreign ownership may boost inward investment in the coming year.

Host nation Papua New Guinea has benefitted from the superpower rivalry that dominated this year’s APEC summit, accumulating a series of economic benefits associated with holding the 21-member bloc’s rotating chair for 2018.