ASEAN economies poised to keep robust growth in 2013 (4)

Demographics are especially powerful in the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Indochina over the next decade. As a result, FDIs are shifting increasingly towards Southeast from Northeast Asia.

Even at this stage, the AEC has already triggered an increase in the share of intra-ASEAN trade, investment and tourist inflows. Furthermore, heavy infrastructure investment is planned to enhance ASEAN-10 connectivity.

Indeed, most central banks in ASEAN still have room to cut policy rates should external demand turn out to be weaker than expected. Already, Thailand and Philippines have recently cut rates in October as a pre-emptive measure to bolster domestic growth in view of sluggish external demand.

On account of domestically-driven inflationary pressures, Monetary Authority of Singapore has also recently maintained a steeper appreciation of the Singapore dollars at its semi-annual October monetary policy review in a bid to anchor inflation expectations and fend off capital inflows inflationary pressures.

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