MANILA — Today's global economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression, and developing Asia is being hit much harder than initially thought. It's now time — in fact it is an opportunity — to rebalance our recent rapid economic growth to help protect us from future external shocks and to strengthen our internal sources of growth.
Average growth in the region declined about three percentage points last year to 6.3 percent. Our 2009 Asian Development Outlook now forecasts that growth will slow this year again by close to 3 percentage points — to 3.4 percent. Many emerging Asian economies will suffer severe recession.
The region's two giants, China and India, are also seeing their rapid economic expansions curtailed. What does this mean to the people of our region? ADB estimates that more than 60 million will remain trapped in absolute poverty — surviving on less than $1.25 per day — people who in 2008-09 would have otherwise broken through the poverty threshold had 2007 growth rates continued.