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Friday, March 29, 2024

ADB: Developing countries on-track to reach steady growth

The Asian Development Bank released a new report on Friday showing that developing countries in the region are on track to achieve steady growth this year despite slower-than-expected growth in the United States in the first quarter.

The Asian Development Outlook (ADO) Supplement maintains the bank's April forecast of 6.2 percent growth in 2014 and 6.4 percent growth in 2015 for the region's 45 developing economies, according to a press release.

"Developing Asia as a region continues to perform well," Deputy Chief Economist Juzhong Zhuang said. "The pace of the growth moderation in the People's Republic of China (PRC) is in line with our expectations, while the stage is set for India to pursue reform that could unlock its growth potential."

The major industrial countries are expected to grow by 1.5 percent this year, down from the 1.9 percent forecast in April.

The ADB's outlook for Southeast Asia has also softened due to slower growth prospects in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

Growth is also moderating in Central Asia because many economies are affected by the deteriorating situation in Russia. The ADB cites weaker than expected performance in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan so far this year in its revised projections. Aggregate growth projections for the region are down to 6.3 percent in 2014 and 6.1 percent in 2015 from earlier forecasts of 6.5 percent for both years.

The Asian Development Outlook is the ADB's main forecasting product, published every April and September with brief updates in July and December.