Growth in Asia Pacific emerging markets to remain strong in 2024: Fitch

The economic growth in Asia Pacific will remain strong in 2024 and GDP is expected to grow by about 5 per cent in India and a host of emerging market countries, Fitch Ratings said on Wednesday. In its report titled 'APAC Cross-Sector Outlook 2024', Fitch said the outlooks for the banking sectors in India and Indonesia, as well as APAC emerging markets as a whole, move to improving in 2024, partly reflecting the robust economic backdrop.

"Economic growth in APAC will generally remain strong in 2024, especially in emerging markets (EMs), supporting sector outlooks across the region. We expect real GDP to expand by, or above, 5 per cent in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, and China's performance will still be strong by most other countries' standards," Fitch said.

The Indian economy grew 7.2 per cent in 2022-23 fiscal year. India's GDP expanded 7.8 per cent and 7.6 per cent in the June and September quarters, respectively.

Fitch had last month said it expects India to be among the world's fastest-growing large sovereigns, with resilient GDP growth of 6.9 per cent this fiscal, followed by 6.5 per cent in 2024-25.

"Robust regional economic growth - particularly in Asia's large emerging markets - should offset headwinds from slowing growth in China, weak global demand and high interest rates, helping to support performance across sectors in APAC in 2024," Fitch Ratings Senior Director Duncan Innes-Ker said.

Fitch said headwinds from slower Chinese growth, weak global demand and higher interest burdens following the rise in interest rates over 2022-23 will weigh on performance for many sectors. But the bulk of Fitch's APAC sector outlooks for 2024 remain neutral.

"Sino-US tensions have eased recently, but we expect relations to remain challenging, which will lead companies to pursue further supply-chain diversification to limit exposure to geopolitical risks," Fitch said.