Growth is gaining momentum across developing Asia. While renewed COVID-19 outbreaks show the pandemic is still a threat, the region’s economic revival is underway, supported by a healthy global recovery and progress on vaccines.This report presents economic prospects for developing Asia and the Pacific. It includes analysis of the impacts of school closures caused by the pandemic and a theme chapter on financing a green and inclusive recovery.
Several downside risks weigh on the generally positive outlook. The biggest is that resurgent COVID-19 outbreaks or delayed or ineffective vaccines could once again disrupt mobility and economic activity, setting back the recovery. This and the other risks to the outlook that are discussed in this report are worrying because the pandemic has set back developing Asia’s push toward more environmentally sustainable and equitable growth.
Global growth in private green and social finance is increasingly driven by financial considerations, which suggests that it can be sustained. While it was investors’ environmental and social goals that initially drove this growth, financial motives are coming to the fore, as this report shows. This report also shows that firms that tap green finance tend to deliver superior returns and exhibit resilience during a crisis, thanks to greater patience in their investor base.