ASEAN surprised with stronger GDP growth in 2017 and trying to sustain

The majors ASEAN economies (Vietnam, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand) had solid to great economic growth in 2017.

October projection of world growth by the world bank increased from 3.2 percent in 2016 to 3.6 percent in 2017 and 3.7 percent in 2018—an upward revision of 0.1 percentage point for both 2017 and 2018 relative to April.

Sameer Goal, Deutsche Bank, believes the strong 2017 war because of three key factors.

1. the tailwinds from a synchronized global growth and trade cycle, and which Asia was able to participate in, even as the worst of fears around protectionism and trade wars, thankfully, did not materialize.

2. the outlook on China as a key economic engine for the region improved significantly, including on its asset markets and particularly the currency.

3. central banks in Asia became progressively more focused on containing market volatility, which helped attract more foreign investor inflows into the region.

Will the good news keep going in 2018 ? Deutche Banks is positive on the prospects for global macro, but worried about financial market adjustments.