COVID’s Effect on Asian Economies

As a result of the newest variant of COVID-19, Omicron, Asian economies are likely to become stagnant in their growth during the upcoming year. As of right now, an increasing amount of cases caused by the Omicron variant are being identified around the continent, which is directly hitting economies.

The Asian Development Bank, or ABD, created a set of statistics to display the predictions of how much the growth of Asian economies would slow down: 7.1-7.0% during the rest of 2021, and 5.4-5.3% during 2022.

Although it is evident that Asian economies such as China have been keeping growth consistent over the course of the pandemic, the new variant is proving to be strong enough to start knocking them down a bit.

However, countries in Central Asia have not been experiencing the same decrease in growth, as the ABD stated that their growth has increased by 0.6%. This is because of the greater supply of natural resources within that area of Asia, which increases spending and can be sold on the market for higher prices as global resources.

The largest percentage decrease was in South Asia, going down by 0.2%. Nations who have recently reopened their markets and economies are more susceptible to negatives effects due to the Omicron variant, as they did not have enough space to grow a substantial amount before any new obstacles during the pandemic could present.