The Asian Development Bank said Friday it maintains its April forecast of 6.2 percent growth for Asia in 2014, and 6.4 percent in 2015, as the region keeps steady growth.

"Developing Asia as a region continues to perform well," said ADB Deputy Chief Economist Juzhong Zhuang, in the bank's Outlook Supplement released on Friday.

The major industrial economies are anticipated to expand by 1.5 percent this year, a downward revision from the 1.9 percent forecast in April's Asian Development Outlook 2014. Softer U.S. growth has been somewhat offset by Japan's robust first quarter performance while the euro area has generally met expectations.

In East Asia, China is on track to meet the Asian Development Outlook 2014 forecasts of 7.5 percent growth this year and 7.4 percent next year, the agency said.

Improving prospects in India have buoyed South Asia's growth outlook somewhat. ADB maintains its growth forecast at 5.5 percent for India for fiscal year 2014 but upgrades its fiscal year 2015 forecast by 0.3 percentage points to 6.3 percent as anticipated reform bears fruit, the report said.

The ADB's 2014 forecast for Southeast Asia is downgraded by 0.3 percentage points to 4.7 percent, as the growth prospects falter in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. In Indonesia, growth in the first quarter of 2014 slowed to 5.2 percent as soft external demand, low commodity prices, and the temporary ban on select mineral exports undermined the recovery of net exports. Thailand's economy contracted by 0.6 percent in the first quarter as the political deadlock affected domestic demand and tourism.

Aggregate growth projections for Central Asia are revised down to 6.3 percent in 2014 and further to 6.1 percent in 2015.

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)