Asia will be more severely hit by a world divided into trading blocs: IMF

RISING trade policy uncertainty and trade restrictions could derail global output, and the impact could be more severe for Asia given its significant role in global manufacturing and trade, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned on Friday (Oct 28).

In its report Regional Economic Outlook: Asia and the Pacific, the IMF said the region is starting to show signs of a slowdown due to headwinds from global financial tightening, the war in Ukraine, and the sharp and uncharacteristic slowdown of the Chinese economy.

Growth in Asia and the Pacific is expected to decelerate to 4 per cent in 2022, before rising to 4.3 per cent in 2023. These forecasts have been revised down by 0.9 percentage point and 0.8 percentage point, respectively, since the April 2022 World Economic Outlook report.