The APEC region’s economic growth is now expected to decline by 3.7 percent in 2020, down from its initial forecast a 2.7% shrinkage announced in April, the APEC Policy Support Unit said today.
These new projections are in line with the revisions by the International Monetary Fund in its recently updated World Economic Outlook，APEC said in a statement. Global growth is projected to fall to - 4.9 percent, compared to a decline of -3 percent estimated earlier by the IMF, the statement sad.
“The protracted duration of the pandemic has caused worse than anticipated impacts on the global economy, with some economies recently reporting a second wave of infection cases” said Denis Hew, Director of the APEC Policy Support Unit. Hew added that economic recovery is in the horizon but it is “highly dependent on the availability of vaccines and treatments as well as the effectiveness of economic policies that are being implemented by economies to address the pandemic,” Hew said.
The updated report projects an economic recovery for the region of 5.7 percent in 2021, compared to the earlier estimate of 6.3 percent. This economic rebound hinges on whether the pandemic can be contained over the second half of this year.
The APEC region’s growth declined by 2.2 percent in the first quarter of this year due to travel restrictions and widespread lockdown measures that depressed domestic consumption, trade and investment activities.
Foreign direct investment shares similar sentiment with inflows to the APEC region going down by 3.1 percent, while greenfield investments dropped sharply by 20.4 percent in 2019.
Member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC, are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, mainland China, Hong Kong, Indonesia，Japan， Malaysia， Mexico， New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Viet Nam.
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