India's stellar financial trajectory, alongside robust predictions for a rare Southeast Asian nations, S&P International Insights stated

September 11, 2023: India’s stellar financial trajectory, alongside robust forecasts for a rare Southeast Asian nations, will be critical drivers for international growth, S&P International Insights stated.

Asia-Pacific is a “key driver” for international economic development not just in the near time but over the longer run, S&P international Asia-Pacific chief economist Rajiv Biswas spoke at the annual energy APPEC conference.

“When we look over the following decade, we expect Asia-Pacific to be the fastest growing region of the world economy,” he said, noting critical bright spots include India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam.

“A massive expansion on the way in the Indian economy, and also a very favorable outlook in Southeast Asia, where we anticipate pretty strong growth to persist in some of the economies, notably Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, will be among the world’s fastest-growing emerging markets over the decade ahead,” said Biswas.

Vietnam’s second-quarter GDP growth rose 4.14% from a year ago, faster than the 3.28% increase in the first quarter. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy, Indonesia, expanded 5.17% year on year in the June quarter. On the other hand, the Philippine economy grew 4.3%, missing Reuters’ expectations of a 6% increase.

India’s economy grew 7.8% in the June quarter, scoring the fastest pace of growth in a year.

“India’s very robust actually; the momentum in the economy looks quite strong at the moment,” the chief economist said. He reiterated S&P Global’s forecast that India will surpass Japan to become the third-largest economy by 2030, with the country’s GDP projected to rise from $3.5 trillion in 2022 to $7.3 trillion by 2030.

As a region, Asia-Pacific’s growth is anticipated to strengthen from 3.3% last year to 4.2% this year, according to S&P’s projections.

“Over the next decade, we anticipate that 55% of the total increase in the GDP will come from the Asia-Pacific region,” he stated.