Economy
Southeast Asia internet economy forecast cut on economic headwinds – SaltWire PEI powered by The Guardian
By Chen Lin
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Southeast Asia’s internet economy is expected to be worth $330 billion by 2025, though this a downgrade from a previous forecast due to economic uncertainty and more pressure on tech companies to make a profit, an industry report said on Thursday.
The annual report, by Alphabet’s Google, Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings and global business consultants Bain & Company, trimmed its forecast for 2025 from $363 billion in last year’s report.
“Amidst global macroeconomic headwinds, reduced disposable income, sky-rocketing prices, and lower product availability, there is tapering of demand from Southeast Asia consumers,” the trio said in a joint release.
The region of 11 countries is one of the world’s fastest growing internet markets, due to a young population, widespread smartphone usage and urbanisation, and a growing middle class.
The report, which covers Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, is still upbeat on this year and sees the internet economy growing 20% to $200 billion, three years earlier than anticipated in an inaugural report in 2016.
All six countries are expected to post double-digit growth between now and 2025, with Vietnam having the fastest growing digital economy this year at 28%.
Indonesia, the region’s most populous nation, saw its digital economy grow 22% to $77 billion this year, contributing to about 40% of Southeast Asia’s total online spending.
On the tech investment front, while early-stage deals are continuing with strong momentum, late-stage deals are seeing “more pronounced dips” and a pause in plans to go public.
Global investors are getting increasingly cautious amid rising interest rates and plummeting stock valuations, the report said, with initial public offering prospects set to grind to a near halt for the next 12 to 18 months.
The digital financial services sector is expected to overtake e-commerce to become the region’s top investment sector, with payments taking up the majority share of the deals.
In the first half of 2022, the sector saw a record funding of around $4 billion.
Meanwhile, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines are likely to attract more investors in the longer-term, the report said.
“Universally investors generally expect deal activity to recover from 2024 onwards,” said Fock Wai Hoong, Deputy Head of Technology & Consumer and Southeast Asia at Temasek.
Venture capitalists had $15 billion on hand to sustain deals at year-end 2021, the report said.
(Reporting by Chen Lin in Singapore; Editing by Ed Davies)
Economy
Poland has EU's second highest emissions in relation to size of economy – Notes From Poland
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Poland has EU’s second highest emissions in relation to size of economy Notes From Poland
Source link
Economy
IMF's Georgieva warns "there's plenty to worry about'' in world economy — including inflation, debt – Yahoo Canada Finance
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the world economy has proven surprisingly resilient in the face of higher interest rates and the shock of war in Ukraine and Gaza, but “there is plenty to worry about,” including stubborn inflation and rising levels of government debt.
“ Inflation is down but not gone,” Kristalina Georgieva told reporters at the spring meeting of the IMF and its sister organization, the World Bank. In the United States, she said, “the flipside” of unexpectedly strong economic growth is that it ”taking longer than expected” to bring inflation down.
Georgieva also warned that government debts are growing around the world. Last year, they ticked up to 93% of global economic output — up from 84% in 2019 before the response to the COVID-19 pandemic pushed governments to spend more to provide healthcare and economic assistance. She urged countries to more efficiently collect taxes and spend public money. “In a world where the crises keep coming, countries must urgently build fiscal resilience to be prepared for the next shock,” she said.
On Tuesday, the IMF said it expects to the global economy to grow 3.2% this year, a modest upgrade from the forecast it made in January and unchanged from 2023. It also expects a third straight year of 3.2% growth in 2025.
ADVERTISEMENT
The world economy has proven unexpectedly sturdy, but it remains weak by historical standards: Global growth averaged 3.8% from 2000 to 2019.
One reason for sluggish global growth, Georgieva said, is disappointing improvement in productivity. She said that countries had not found ways to most efficiently match workers and technology and that years of low interest rates — that only ended after inflation picked up in 2021 — had allowed “firms that were not competitive to stay afloat.”
She also cited in many countries an aging “labor force that doesn’t bring the dynamism” needed for faster economic growth.
The United States has been an exception to the weak productivity gains over the past year. Compared to Europe, Georgieva said, America makes it easier for businesses to bring innovations to the marketplace and has lower energy costs.
She said countries could help their economies by slashing bureaucratic red tape and getting more women into the job market.
Paul Wiseman, The Associated Press
Economy
Nigeria’s Economy, Once Africa’s Biggest, Slips to Fourth Place – BNN Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) — Nigeria’s economy, which ranked as Africa’s largest in 2022, is set to slip to fourth place this year and Egypt, which held the top position in 2023, is projected to fall to second behind South Africa after a series of currency devaluations, International Monetary Fund forecasts show.
The IMF’s World Economic Outlook estimates Nigeria’s gross domestic product at $253 billion based on current prices this year, lagging energy-rich Algeria at $267 billion, Egypt at $348 billion and South Africa at $373 billion.
Africa’s most industrialized nation will remain the continent’s largest economy until Egypt reclaims the mantle in 2027, while Nigeria is expected to remain in fourth place for years to come, the data released this week shows.
Nigeria and Egypt’s fortunes have dimmed as they deal with high inflation and a plunge in their currencies.
Bola Tinubu has announced significant policy reforms since he became Nigeria’s president at the end of May 2023, including allowing the currency to float more freely, scrapping costly energy and gasoline subsidies and taking steps to address dollar shortages. Despite a recent rebound, the naira is still 50% weaker against the greenback than what it was prior to him taking office after two currency devaluations.
Read More: Why Nigeria’s Currency Rebounded and What It Means: QuickTake
Egypt, one of the emerging world’s most-indebted countries and the IMF’s second-biggest borrower after Argentina, has also allowed its currency to float, triggering an almost 40% plunge in the pound’s value against the dollar last month to attract investment.
The IMF had been calling for a flexible currency regime for many months and the multilateral lender rewarded Egypt’s government by almost tripling the size of a loan program first approved in 2022 to $8 billion. This was a catalyst for a further influx of around $14 billion in financial support from the European Union and the World Bank.
Read More: Egypt Avoided an Economic Meltdown. What Next?: QuickTake
Unlike Nigeria’s naira and Egypt’s pound, the value of South Africa’s rand has long been set in the financial markets and it has lost about 4% of its value against the dollar this year. Its economy is expected to benefit from improvements to its energy supply and plans to tackle logistic bottlenecks.
Algeria, an OPEC+ member has been benefiting from high oil and gas prices caused first by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now tensions in the Middle East. It stepped in to ease some of Europe’s gas woes after Russia curtailed supplies amid its war in Ukraine.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Tech23 hours ago
Cytiva Showcases Single-Use Mixing System at INTERPHEX 2024 – BioPharm International
-
Health19 hours ago
Supervised consumption sites urgently needed, says study – Sudbury.com
-
Science5 hours ago
Jeremy Hansen – The Canadian Encyclopedia
-
News18 hours ago
Canada's 2024 budget announces 'halal mortgages'. Here's what to know – National Post
-
News17 hours ago
2024 federal budget's key takeaways: Housing and carbon rebates, students and sin taxes – CBC News
-
Tech21 hours ago
New EV features for Google Maps have arrived. Here’s how to use them. – The Washington Post
-
Science18 hours ago
Giant, 82-foot lizard fish discovered on UK beach could be largest marine reptile ever found – Livescience.com
-
Tech24 hours ago
Nintendo Indie World Showcase April 2024 – Every Announcement, Game Reveal & Trailer – Nintendo Life