ASEAN Connect

02 September 2024

The recently concluded ASEAN Conference 2024 conveyed an unmistakably poignant and clear message: ASEAN is a bright spot in a troubled world beset by geopolitical tensions, geoeconomic fragmentation, climate change and the swift pace of digital transformation. 

02 September 2024

Three key factors contribute to a favourable outlook for ASEAN in the coming years: 1. Increasing cross-border policy coordination; 2. deepening integration across various economic sectors among its members; 3. a peaceful environment coupled with generally stable domestic political conditions.

29 July 2024

The latest foreign direct investment (FDI) data showed that global FDI inflows dropped by 2% in 2023 to a total of US$1.33 tn while ASEAN saw record inflows for the third year with a gain of 1.2% to US$226.3 bn, due to robust economic growth and extensive global value chain (GVC) linkages.

30 May 2024

An important area that is bound for change in the years ahead is the ASEAN's labour market dynamics. We employ a well-established theory of the so-called Beveridge curve analysis to perform an empirical study on the bigger and more mature ASEAN economies.

4 March 2024

Rhetoric from the US Federal Reserve (Fed) doesn't suggest imminent rate cut ahead as incoming US economic data painted resiliency and strength in its economy. Clearly, this has impacted the portfolio capital flows in the ASEAN region of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines.

28 February 2024

The signing of MOU between Malaysia and Singapore in Jan 2024 on the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ) showcases yet again the extent of deepening of cooperation among ASEAN member states, in contrast to a world that is increasingly fragmented, confrontational, and distrustful.

1 December 2023

GDP growth in ASEAN-5 has averaged slightly lower over the past two decades this century. Rising global uncertainty and disruptions to multilateral trade would probably call for ASEAN to look inward to find new growth opportunities to uplift its potential growth from here.

1 December 2023

The downturn in regional trade has likely found its bottom and is showing signs of recovery albeit with a bumpy pace with East Asia’s export recovery leading the ASEAN-6. Improved import demand observed across key Asian countries further underpins domestic demand as a key driver of regional growth amid improving labour markets and domestic policy support.

15 September 2023

The ASEAN region is known to have differing levels of financial depth amongst its member countries. For example, while being the largest economy in ASEAN, Indonesia's financial sector only contributed 4% to Indonesia's GDP, even lower than before 2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and lags behind its Asian peers.

8 June 2023

Enhancing ASEAN connectivity will undoubtedly bring about a more integrated ASEAN that will in turn promote competitiveness, inclusiveness, and a greater sense of community.

15 March 2023

With major central banks around the world still embarking on interest rate hikes to fight off inflationary pressures, associated risks on growth, either taking the form of recessionary risks or marked slowdown are inevitable.

21 December 2022

Key members in ASEAN have managed to ride through a year of volatile swings in the financial markets, brought on by the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine military conflict, spikes in commodities prices, rising inflation pressures globally and aggressive rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.

22 June 2022

The US Fed is likely to be on track in lifting its rates to reach the 3.25-3.50% range by the end of the year, resulting into narrower policy rate differential with the ASEAN counterparts.

25 May 2022

Household debts are on the rise in ASEAN economies but remains at an acceptable rate of increase.

23 February 2022

ASEAN central banks are likely to start lifting-off only nearing the latter part of this year in contrast with some of their other global EMs counterparts elsewhere that have already begun tightening rates.

11 May 2021

The COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in a significant deterioration of public finances for every country across the world. Many a fiscal balance were thrown into disarray, slipping into deep unprecedented deficits as governments acted decisively by issuing significant fiscal stimulus packages aimed at stabilizing the local economy and supporting the domestic job market.

29 January 2021

Global foreign direct investment (FDI) flows declined by 44% in 2020 with ASEAN recording a more moderate fall of 31%. China became the top FDI destination after its decisive handling of the pandemic and early economic recovery, while the US fell to second position.

5 July 2019

One year into the US-China trade tensions, we analyzed data in key ASEAN countries to assess howthe grouping is affected, based on trade, investment and consumption patterns.