Asia's steady economic growth is likely to continue on the back of an upbeat global economy though concerns linger from trade policy uncertainties by the new U.S. administration under the "America-First" stance in addition to tighter immigration control around the world, economists said.
"The world economy is in a cyclical recovery stage, so it is likely that this momentum in Asia will continue for the time being," Toru Nishihama, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, told The Japan Times. "Asia's developing economies are inclined to rally dependent on the upbeat global trend as many economies in the region have high export dependencies."
World growth is estimated to rise to 3.5 percent in 2017 and 3.6 percent in 2018 from 3.1 percent in 2016, according to the International Monetary Fund's World Economic Outlook released in April. In the meantime, the Asian Development Bank predicted developing Asian economies would expand by 5.7 percent in both 2017 and 2018 in its Asian Development Outlook 2017 published last month.