The improvement has been attributed to the resilience of its manufacturing sector and the return of tourists now that borders have reopened.

Similar positive signs are also appearing in Thailand and the Pacific island countries.

However, prospects are not as great for the Asia-Pacific region as a whole.

According to a Bloomberg report this morning, the IMF has lowered its growth forecast for the region to 4.2%. That is 0.7 percentage point down from its forecast in April which, the report noted, was well below the region’s 6.5% growth in 2021.

The IMF was also less upbeat on its expectations for 2023, reducing its projection by 0.5 percentage point to 4.6%.

It attributed the not-so-positive prospects to the fact that “the ongoing spillover from shocks” caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China’s economic lockdown to curb the spread of Covid-19 and rising interest rates, were already materialising.

Krishna Srinivasam, director of the Asia and Pacific Department at the IMF, wrote on his blog that this was compounding the regional growth spillover from China’s slowdown.

“Increased trade policy uncertainty and a fraying supply chains are also expected to delay economic recovery and exacerbate scarring from the pandemic,” Srinivasan wrote.