Jakarta. Economic think tank AMRO is becoming less upbeat about ASEAN+3’s growth for this year as the research body cuts down its 2024 projections to 4.4 percent.

In AMRO’s report, the ASEAN+3 grouping brings together members of the Southeast Asian bloc alongside Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Korea. The freshly announced forecast for the ASEAN+3 fell from AMRO’s earlier projection of 4.5 percent. ASEAN+3’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at the same rate of 4.4 percent last year. AMRO -- short for ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office -- wrote in its July report that favorable export prospects alongside solid domestic demand and tourism recovery would help lift the group’s growth in 2024 and the following year.

“This year, the [ASEAN+3] region is expected to grow at a steady pace of 4.4 percent. …  We also expect the [ASEAN+3] region to expand by 4.3 percent in 2025, slightly higher than what we initially projected, as the region’s economies converge to their trend growth,” Allen Ng, the group head and the principal economist at AMRO, told a virtual press briefing on Tuesday.

AMRO’s 2025 GDP forecast for ASEAN+3 stood at 4.2 percent in the previous report.

AMRO maintained its projections for Indonesia which is forecast to expand at 5.2 percent throughout 2024. This forecast still aligns with Bank Indonesia’s projections. According to the central bank, Indonesia’s annual growth will likely fall within the range of 4.7 and 5.5 percent in 2024.

The AMRO report showed that Indonesia might be the fourth fastest-growing ASEAN economy this year, just behind Vietnam (6.3 percent), the Philippines (6.1 percent), and Cambodia (5.6 percent). Indonesia would also grow at the same pace of 5.2 percent in 2025, AMRO said.

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