Deadly Delta variant derails regional recovery

Annabeth Leow

Published Tue, Aug 10, 2021 · 05:50 AM

Singapore

THE deadly Delta variant now ravaging South-east Asia has upended expectations of Asean resilience and is fuelling concerns about longer-term economic damage in the region.

HSBC last week slashed full-year growth estimates for every Asean-6 economy but Singapore. ANZ similarly cut its Asean-6 outlook to 3.9 per cent growth in 2021 - down from an earlier forecast of 4.6 per cent.

Sanjay Mathur, chief economist for South-east Asia and India at ANZ, has now estimated that output gaps in Asean might close in early 2023, rather than 2022 as earlier expected.

Chris Humphrey, executive director of the EU-Asean Business Council, told The Business Times (BT) that hopes of a recovery in 2021 are "stalling now due to the increase in infections, renewed lockdowns and restrictions, and the …