The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its forecast for this year's economic growth in the ASEAN-5 countries (which comprises Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam) from an initial 5.5 percent to 6.0 percent. Next year, however, the IMF revised down its forecast for the region from 5.7 percent to 5.5 percent. In 2012, ASEAN-5 had experienced 6.1 percent of economic growth, up from 4.5 percent the previous year.

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Last week, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published its World Economic Outlook (edition April 2013) titled "Hopes, Realities and Risks". In the report, the IMF lowered its forecast for global economic growth from an initial 3.5 percent (January edition) to 3.3 percent currently. Although the IMF lowered its economic forecasts for most countries (including emerging markets as a whole), it revised up its projection for the ASEAN-5 countries¹ by 0.3 percent to 5.9 percent.

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