Nikkei Asia reported that “Asian economists have revised upward their growth forecasts for the economies of Singapore and Indonesia, thanks to quicker rollouts of coronavirus vaccines. They revised growth projections for Singapore, Indonesia and India, from the previous survey conducted in December. Singapore is expected to achieve economic growth of 6.1 percent this year, up from 4.5 percent previously forecast. Indonesia’s gross domestic product is seen expanding by 3.9 percent, up from 3.6 percent in the last survey.” With the successful vaccination rollout in Singapore and Indonesia, we can expect their economies surging ahead this year and recovery back to pre-Covid levels for most of their industries in the third quarter of 2022.
On the other hand, Inquirer reporter Doris Dumlao-Abadilla remarked that the “Philippine economy may be hard-pressed to even grow by five percent this year as no relief is yet in sight from the Covid-19 pandemic a year since the outbreak, prompting a return to tough lockdown protocols. This was according to Romeo Bernardo, economist at New York-based think tank Global Source, who said in a research note dated April 5, 2021, that the present crisis was a “concrete display of what has kept us worried all this time and why we have not been able to shake off a more pessimistic outlook for the economy.” Personally, we are still a long way to go and whatever forecasts that will come out this quarter will be a moving target. If we follow the path of Singapore, the only thing that can take us out of this mud is relentless vaccination initiatives. I consider the latter a game changer if we want economic growth and recovery to start this year.