Trade and investment in Asia and the Pacific region is progressing slowly, as economies adjust to changes brought on by the global economic downturn and China’s expected reduction in growth.
This is according to a new UN report launched yesterday – the Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2015, compiled by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), which documents the analysis of regional trade and investment. The report was launched in Bangkok.
The report states that total imports and exports from the Asia-Pacific region increased by only 1.6 per cent in 2014; and when excluding China from the region’s total, exports registered a 0.4 per cent decline.
Asia and the Pacific accounted for nearly 40 per cent of global exports and imports in 2014, while intra-regional imports remained at a little over 50 per cent of the total in 2014, with intra-regional exports at 54 per cent, according to the report.
Any possibilities of a merchandise trade recovery could suffer, if the pace of trade and investment growth continues at this rate, the report suggests.
But despite this, the report highlights the importance of the Asia-Pacific region. More specifically, the region’s achievements in leveraging trade and investment flows for development.
The Asia-Pacific Trade and Investment Report 2015 can be found here.
