“Unfortunately, India is not yet in a position to pick up the slack in demand from a moderating PRC (People’s Republic of China)”, ADB said in an update to its annual Asian Development Outlook that sees weaker Chinese growth dragging down the rest of Asia. Emerging markets are facing receding capital flows and depreciating currencies – a trend that may be exacerbated by the upcoming rise in U.S. interest rates. It said because of slowing growth in India and also China, growth forecasts for GDP in the region had been revised down to 5.8 pc in 2015 and 6.0 pc in 2016 from the March estimate of 6.3 per cent for both years.

The ADB identified he El Niño weather phenomena and slower than expected economic growth in the major industrial economies and China as risks to their outlook. On the other hand, the receding threat of a Greek debt crisis provided a fillip to growth projections for the euro area. With tepid domestic demand largely offsetting price pressures from the devaluation, year-on-year inflation rose to only 3.5 percent in the first half of 2015, which was nevertheless up from 1.6 percent for the same period in 2014. In March, ADO had forecast a growth rate of 7.8 pc for 2015-16 and 8.2 pc for 2016-17.

“Vietnam’s improving economic growth performance is being driven by a number of factors, particularly stronger output from manufacturing sector and also rising consumer spending and macroeconomic stability, ADB Country Director Eric Sidgwick highlighted at a press conference held in Hanoi on September 22 to release the 2015 report”.

“As exports growth is expected to outpace import growth, net external demand is seen contributing to GDP growth in 2016”, the report said.

China worldwide Capital Corp gave the most optimistic forecast so far among the financial institutions, saying retail sales growth in the third quarter is likely to accelerate to 10.9 percent, and then hit 11.8 percent in the last three months.

For the five large economies in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the growth forecast for this year has been lowered to 4.8 per cent – a slight uptick from 2014 – before accelerating to 5.3 per cent next year.

He said challenges confronting the PPP make it necessary to address these for more efficient implementation of the projects, which, in the long run, would be the solid growth driver of the economy. Planned infrastructure investment has fallen behind schedule in Indonesia and the Philippines, and Thailand’s recovery to date has been sluggish.