Vietnam & Cambodia among Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economies (2024)

FAQs

Which is the fastest-growing economy in Southeast Asia? ›

The Philippines overtook Vietnam and Malaysia to become Southeast Asia's fastest-growing economy last year, with expansion driven by consumption, services and investment. Gross domestic product expanded 5.6%, surpassing the median 5.5% growth seen in a Bloomberg survey of economists.

WB East Asia and Pacific Chief Economist Aaditya Mattoo attributed Viet Nam's 5 percent growth projection to global trade resilience as well as the country's post-pandemic recovery resilience.

India is the member of G-20 major economies and BRICS from the region. It is the fastest-growing major economy in the world and one of the world's fastest registering a growth of 7.2% in FY 2022-23. India is followed by Bangladesh, which has a GDP of ($446 billion). a.

Over the two decades before COVID-19 struck in 2020, Cambodia blossomed economically. Cambodia's economy grew at an average annual rate of 7.6 percent between 1995 and 2019, driven largely by tourism, manufacturing exports, real estate, and construction, making it one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told reporters on Wednesday the government was confident that the economy would expand at a pace of 6.5 to 7.5 per cent in 2024 – which will help the Philippines retain the region's top growth tag.

Guyana registered the world's highest real GDP growth rate in 2022, with its national output 62.4% higher. Driven by its booming oil sector, the economy is set to expand by 27.2% in 2023 and 34.2% next year — consolidating the country as the world's fastest-growing economy in 2024.

The fast population growth has its root in the agricultural past of the Vietnamese society, and help from the advance of modern medicine and sanitation. The two deadly wars (the First Indochina War and the Vietnam War) did very little in slowing down the population boom which began sometimes in the 1930s.

Vietnam's economy emerged from COVID-19 with a surprisingly high 8 per cent annual growth rate at the end of 2022, but took a gloomy U-turn in the first half of 2023, plagued by falling exports due to monetary tightening in the developed world and a slow post-pandemic recovery in China.

Vietnam has been a development success story. Economic reforms since the launch of Đổi Mới in 1986, coupled with beneficial global trends, have helped propel Vietnam from being one of the world's poorest nations to a middle-income economy in one generation.

Nepal is the poorest country in South Asia and the 17th poorest in the world. Approximately 25 percent of Nepalis live below the poverty line.

Which country has the best economy in Southeast Asia? ›

Indonesia has annual incomes of $4,580 and the largest economy, making up more than a third of the economic weight of Southeast Asia (GDP).

The economy of Vietnam is a developing mixed socialist-oriented market economy. It is the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product (GDP) and the 26th-largest economy in the world by purchasing power parity (PPP). It is a lower-middle income country with a low cost of living.

Cambodia's two largest industries are textiles and tourism, while agricultural activities remain the main source of income for many Cambodians living in rural areas. The service sector is heavily concentrated on trading activities and catering-related services.

Poverty Data: Cambodia

In Cambodia, 17.8% of the population lived below the national poverty line in 2019. In Cambodia, the proportion of employed population below $1.90 purchasing power parity a day in 2022 was 14.2%. For every 1,000 babies born in Cambodia in 2021, 25 died before their 5th birthday.

Indonesia has annual incomes of $4,580 and the largest economy, making up more than a third of the economic weight of Southeast Asia (GDP). The next five biggest economies are more evenly weighted – Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia each make up around 10–15 per cent of Southeast Asia's economy.

Southeast Asia's economies exhibited robust performance in the fourth quarter 2023. GDP grew in all economies, with growth in Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam increasing during this period, while Malaysia and the Philippines recorded slower growth (Exhibit 1).

The Philippines ended 2023 on a high note, being the fastest growing economy across Southeast Asia with a growth rate of 5.6 percent—just shy of the government's target of 6.0 to 7.0 percent.

The Philippines achieved an impressive 5.9% GDP growth in the third quarter of 2023, surpassing major emerging economies in Asia.