Publication: World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2025: Jobs
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2025-10-07
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2025-10-07
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GDP growth in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region remains above the global average but is projected to slow down in 2025 and even further in 2026. The sluggishness is due to a less favorable external environment—rising trade restrictions, easing but still elevated global uncertainty, and slowing global growth—as well as persistent domestic difficulties. Today, many people are in low-productivity or informal jobs, and many of the young cannot find any jobs. The class of people vulnerable to falling into poverty is now larger than the middle class in most countries. In a region that thrived because export-oriented, labor-intensive growth created more productive jobs, firms must deal with higher tariffs and workers must contend with the growing use of robots, AI and digital platforms. More productive jobs would be created by reforms to enhance economic opportunity, human capacity and their virtuous interplay.
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“World Bank. 2025. World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2025: Jobs. © World Bank, Washington DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/43739 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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Publication World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2014 : Enhancing Competitiveness in an Uncertain World(Washington, DC, 2014-10-09)In China, growth will gradually moderate, reflecting intensified policy efforts to address financial vulnerabilities and structural constraints, and place the economy on a more sustainable growth path. In the rest of the region, growth will pick up, as exports firm in line with strengthening global activity, and the impact of domestic adjustment in large ASEAN countries eases. Significant uncertainties remain about the sustainability of the global recovery, and global financial conditions are likely to tighten. The short-term priority in several countries is to address the vulnerabilities and inefficiencies created by an extended period of loose financial conditions and fiscal stimulus. In China, the authorities need to strike a balance between containing growing risks from rising leverage and meeting the indicative growth targets. Over the longer term, the focus in most countries must be on structural reforms to enhance export competitiveness. The report’s special section focuses on education and skills development; international migration; and the policy priorities for the Pacific Island Countries.Publication World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, April 2025: A Longer View(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-24)East Asia and Pacific (EAP) outpaced most regions in economic growth in 2024. To sustain this momentum and generate jobs, EAP countries must navigate global uncertainty and tackle long-term challenges tied to shifting global integration, climate change, and demographic trends. In its 2025 Regional Economic Update, the World Bank projects that growth in EAP will slow down to 4.0 percent in 2025, compared to 5.0 percent in 2024. Uncertainty around these projections remains high, and growth outcomes will depend on global developments and national policy choices.Publication World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2022(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2022-10)Growth in most countries in the East Asia and the Pacific (EAP) region rebounded in the first half of 2022, but China lost momentum. In much of the region, domestic demand revived after the distress of the COVID-19 Delta wave. In China, the public health measures to contain outbreaks of the highly infectious Omicron variant inhibited consumption. Most of the region is projected to grow faster and have lower inflation in 2022 than other regions. Beyond the end of 2022, three factors could be a drag on growth: global deceleration, rising debt, and policy distortions. Current measures to contain inflation and debt are adding to existing distortions in the markets for food, fuel and finance in ways that could hurt growth. In each case, more efficient measures could address current difficulties without undermining longer-term objectives.Publication World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2015(Washington, DC, 2015-10-05)The East Asia and Pacific Economic Update provides regular, biannual analyses of development trends and economic policy issues across the East Asia and Pacific regionPublication World Bank East Asia and Pacific Economic Update, October 2018(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2018-10-03)Growth in developing East Asia and Pacific (EAP) was resilient during the first half of 2018. Although the external environment has become less favorable in some respects, the outlook for the region remains positive. After peaking in 2017, growth in developing EAP is expected to slow modestly in 2018, primarily reflecting the continued moderation in China’s economic expansion as its economy continues to rebalance. However, heightened uncertainty has intensified the risks to the region’s outlook. An escalation in trade tensions and heightened financial market turbulence, either due to an acceleration in U.S. monetary policy normalization or contagion from other emerging markets could threaten the region’s growth prospects. To navigate uncertainty, regional economies should reduce short-term vulnerabilities and enhance buffers, redouble their commitment to an open, rules-based international trade and investment framework, including through deeper regional economic integration, and deepen structural reforms. The intensification of risks underscores the need to continue to enhance economic security and promote economic mobility by: expanding and strengthening social assistance and insurance programs; investing in prenatal and early childhood development; and reducing gaps in educational access and quality for disadvantaged groups and in lagging areas.
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