According to The Nikkei, as of February 2, the six major ASEAN countries, namely Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore, had announced their 2023 GDP growth rates.
Accordingly, Malaysia reported GDP growth of 3.7%, 5 percentage points lower than that in 2022, the highest fall among the regional countries. Meanwhile, the Philippines’ economy grew by 5.6%, failing to reach the target of 6%-7%. Indonesia's growth rate decreased to 5.05%, far below 5.31% recorded in 2022. Thailand's actual growth rate in 2023 was 1.9%, lower than 2.5% in 2022 and 2.5% forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
A report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) predicted that the average growth rate of Southeast Asia this year will be 4.7% and unable to return to the economic growth momentum of 5.6% in 2022.
China’s economic developments are the biggest factor affecting Southeast Asia's economy. China holds the largest proportion of trade among the ASEAN countries and the region at about 20%. China's economic slowdown has affected the import-export and tourism industries of the Southeast Asian countries. In 2019, before the COVID-19 outbreak, China was one of the main sources of tourists for the Southeast Asian countries. However, the trend of Chinese people traveling abroad dropped drastically in 2023.
Bloomberg News reported that Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin asked the central bank to urgently hold an unscheduled meeting of its Monetary Policy Committee to cut interest rates, saying the latest data indicated that the nation’s economy was in a crisis. As scheduled, the committee will meet on April 10./.
