Asia set to lead global growth in 2022 as travel rebounds amid easing of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions
- Asian equity markets outshone the rest of the world in 2021 after a spree of new listings even as China cracked down on major digital players
- Travel and tourism is expected to start recovering in 2002 as vaccination rates pick up and vaccine passports are codified
This article was part of a special supplement on private banking which was published in the South China Morning Post print edition on October 20, 2021.
Even as Goldman Sachs slashed its 2022 growth forecast for the United States, many analysts remain optimistic about prospects for the year with the Asian region showing encouraging signs over the past three quarters. Even so, 2021 has been a mixed bag for Asia with Covid-19 infections surging in many countries after largely being contained in 2020.
“Asia’s equity markets were the world’s best performers during the first half of the year and continued their winning run into the third quarter on the back of a spree of IPOs,” says Swarup Gupta, financial services industry manager at market consultancy The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). “This was the best third quarter for IPOs in Asia, largely on the back of record-breaking deals in South Korea and Asia, tempered by the quiet mood in Hong Kong following China’s regulatory crackdown on dominant digital companies.”
Goldman Sachs cut its US gross domestic product projection for 2021 to 5.6 per cent from 5.7 per cent, having already slashed that figure down from 6.2 per cent in September.
In terms of medium-term growth forecasts, they expect GDP to grow at a 4 per cent rate next year, down from 4.4 per cent after this year’s fourth-quarter projection was revised to 4.5 per cent from 5 per cent.
Although Asia, for the most part, managed to limit the damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, the coronavirus returned with a vengeance in many parts of the region in 2021.
