Southeast Asia’s strong fundamentals remain its core strengths. These include its large, youthful and increasingly affluent population base and business-friendly policies. The Asean spirit of policy collaboration and integration has been on strong display in recent months with the establishment of the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ).
US President Donald Trump’s tariffs have raised fears of a global trade slowdown, but Southeast Asia continues to attract investments. While reliable data on foreign direct investments (FDI) tends to have severe time lags, the early signs are encouraging.
Our analysis of Southeast Asia’s six largest economies shows that the inbound flow of capital is holding up well this year compared with a year ago. Using annualised data, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand lead the pack in terms of growth, while Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines lag behind.
