{"id":2972,"date":"2025-12-12T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=2972"},"modified":"2025-12-12T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T10:30:00","slug":"asia-will-get-steady-growth-next-year-defying-global-headwinds-mastercards-chief-apac-economist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=2972","title":{"rendered":"Asia will get steady growth next year, defying global headwinds: Mastercard\u2019s chief APAC economist"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cThe actual contributions to global growth come more from the Asia-Pacific region than they do from the Americas or Europe,\u201d says David Mann, Mastercard\u2019s chief APAC economist, in an interview with Fortune.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Mann credits plentiful investment, particularly in technology and infrastructure associated with the AI buildout, for Asia\u2019s resilient growth. He adds that the APAC region is unique as three-quarters of its foreign direct investment comes from the rest of the region, rather than from non-Asian sources.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With the U.S. being an increasingly unreliable trade partner, Asian countries are looking to build supply chains with their neighbors. \u201cEven more investment is going into other markets around the region, from China, to Japan and South Korea, to help expand supply chains and capacity in multiple markets for diversification,\u201d says Mann.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Uneven growth in ASEAN<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Mastercard predicts that growth trajectories will diverge in Southeast Asia next year. Among the ASEAN-5 nations (the five founding and largest economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations), Indonesia and the Philippines will expand steadily, while growth moderates in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that there will be some support in Indonesia, from fiscal policy and investment expansion,\u201d Mann says, adding that he predicts \u201csteady growth\u201d (5% real GDP growth) in Southeast Asia\u2019s most populous country.<\/p>\n

In the Philippines, multiple one-off shocks in 2025 have led analysts to predict stronger growth rates in 2026, due to more moderate growth this year.<\/p>\n

Thailand, on the other hand, is going through a \u201csofter patch\u201d, with Mann calling it one of the slower-growing economies in the region.<\/p>\n

Mastercard predicts real GDP growth in Thailand to slow to 1.8% in 2026. The country faces \u201crelatively large\u201d demographic challenge, Mann adds, pointing to the country\u2019s rapid transition into a super-aged society due to its record-low birth rates.<\/p>\n

The rising middle class<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yet, Mann argues that there are reasons to be optimistic about Southeast Asia\u2019s growth.<\/p>\n

\u201cASEAN itself is a big, significant global player, even compared to Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Latin America and the EMEA region,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s a significant region that has still got a rising middle class and urbanization story, especially in places like Vietnam.\u201d<\/p>\n

The young region\u2019s growing affluence will also increase consumer spending, further spurring growth. Southeast Asia\u2019s relatively young, digitally-savvy demographic also provides a steady flow of customers chasing the latest consumer trends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re producing in Indonesia, you would be selling there as well, because it\u2019s such a huge market\u2014over 40% of the ASEAN populace is in Indonesia itself,\u201d says Mann.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A richer demographic is also likely to travel more. \u201cAs you get more and more people becoming more affluent, they\u2019re moving beyond just buying stuff to going for experiences\u2014and travel is at the top of that list,\u201d says Mann.<\/p>\n

The resurgence of tourism after the pandemic is also a boon for Southeast Asia, a popular travel destination for regional and global tourists alike. In 2025, Thailand especially saw a surge in tourists, following the release of the third season of hit HBO TV series, The White Lotus, which was filmed in various Thai cities including Koh Samui, Phuket and Bangkok.<\/p>\n

Globally, alternative destinations (or destination dupes) have also grown increasingly popular, as\u00a0 travelers seek out the path less trodden. \u201cThat means that you can see even more places opening up where you get tourists going in\u2014where they\u2019d never been before,\u201d Mann explains. This would spur job creation and infrastructure investment, and spread the economic gains from tourism over different regions of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn places like Thailand or Malaysia, we have seen an increased dispersion of the share of spending. It used to be that the top five destinations had the lion\u2019s share of all the spending in the country by tourists\u2014and that has been going down steadily year after year,\u201d Mann says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#Asia #steady #growth #year #defying #global #headwinds #Mastercards #chief #APAC #economist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe actual contributions to g… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[3077,464,1088,3074,3068,3069,2192,326,567,3075,3070,3076,3071,2642,491,3072,3073,85],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2972"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2972\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2972"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2972"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2972"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}