Southeast Asia experienced a major surge in Covid-19 cases last month that has shown little signs of slowing, and the situation is expected to delay most of the region’s economic recovery.
Major economies in this part of the world, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines, saw a sharp rise in daily reported cases and deaths from the disease in July.
Information compiled by online publication Our World In Data showed, based on a seven-day moving average basis, Malaysia recorded 515.88 confirmed Covid infections per million people on July 31. That number steadily increased since June 30, when it was around 180.85. Behind Malaysia was Thailand with 236.02 new cases per million people on July 31, followed by Indonesia with 147.20 cases. Vietnam, the Philippines, and Singapore also saw increases in daily new cases per million people.
Bank of America, in a research note last week, said its calculations showed average daily cases in the region surged by 162% last month to reach a new record of 72,200, while daily deaths tripled from 500 a day to 1,500 people on average.
Indonesia and Malaysia recorded the highest death rates per million population in July, according to the bank.
Read Also:
Bank of America economists in a separate note last week said the recent lockdown measures in Southeast Asian economies “started to take a toll on factory output.” “While the impact of the lockdown on ASEAN PMI this time was not as significant as that in Apr 2020, the magnitude is already close to a 4-standard deviation negative shock,” the Bank of America economists wrote, adding that the consequences were already greater than what they had seen in India during its devastating second wave.
Australian bank ANZ lowered GDP growth forecasts for Southeast Asia’s six major economies from 4.6% to 3.9% for 2021. For 2022, the prediction remained unchanged at 5.4%.
