APEC likely to witness 2.7% economic decline in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) region’s growth is expected to decrease by 2.7% in 2020 owing to spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. The estimated output loss due to the economic fallout is Coronavirus is said to be upto USD 2.1 trillion. The fall is said to be the most significant one since the 2009 global financial crisis when APEC recorded a near-zero growth rate.

Last year, the 21-member region recorded economic growth of 3.6 percent. The region's unemployment rate is projected to rise to 5.4 percent in 2020 from 3.8 percent in 2019, or an additional 23.5 million workers being unemployed in 2020, according to a report released by the APEC Secretariat.

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An economic rebound is expected in 2021, with an anticipated growth of 6.3 percent, provided containment mechanisms to avoid a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as measures to stimulate the economy are effective enough as planned.

APEC comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.

The pandemic has forced this year's APEC economic forum and leaders' summit host Malaysia to delay meetings already though the leaders' summit in November is likely to go ahead as planned. New Zealand, next year's host was meant to begin meetings from December this year which were to conclude with the leaders' summit in November 2021, however, the nation has diverted all its attention to fighting the pandemic.

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