COVID-19 could spur $620b in losses for Asia-Pacific

Inflation and policy rate falls as unemployment rate increases in the region.

Total and permanent income loss for Asia-Pacific due COVID-19 will hit approximately $620b from Q1 2020 to mid-2021, according to S&P Global Ratings. This loss will be distributed across sovereign, bank, corporate, and household balance sheets.

Further, China's GDP growth rate will slow to 2.9% in 2020, whilst economies of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea are expected to contract. In addition, Japan is facing deflation.

These factors lead to the APAC region’s GDP growth rate slowing down by 2 percentage points (ppt) to 2.7% from 4.7% in 2019, S&P said.

Inflation rate is also expected to contract to 1.34% in 2020 from 1.81% in 2019, whilst year-end policy rate is predicted to fall to 1.61%, 0.66 ppt lower than last year’s 2.27%.

Meanwhile, unemployment rate in APAC widened by 0.52 ppt to 3.55%.
 

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