Myanmar to grow the fastest in Asia-Pacific this year
Myanmar to grow the fastest in Asia-Pacific this year
An economic growth spurt ahead in Myanmar despite a stormy 2015
It seems to be clear skies ahead for Myanmar’s economy, which is still riding high on recent reforms that has democratised society and eased international sanctions.
In its latest Asian Development Outlook report, Asian Development Bank expects Myanmar’s economy to grow by 8.4 percent over the year, outpacing other countries in Asia and the Pacific.
This remarkable growth is coming from an especially challenging year marked by a monsoon season that ravaged “one-fifth of all cultivated land,” ADB reported.
ADB acknowledged that the economy is “narrowly based,” its growth attendant on “natural resource exports, construction, and tourism.”
Tourist arrivals in 2015 shot to 4.7 million, while tourist spending grew 19 percent to USD2.1 billion. Garment exports went up 28 percent to USD2 billion.
More: PropertyGuru taps ShweProperty.com for an exclusive partnership in Myanmar
The Directorate of Investments and Company Administration revealed that foreign direct investments reached USD9.4 billion over the past year, per The Nation, with more than USD3 billion going to the real estate sector.
Myanmar’s GDP has not dipped below 6 percent since 2012. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party swept a partly free election that year under a nominally civilian government, encouraging Western nations to lift sanctions.
Suu Kyi’s long-time confidante Htin Kyaw took oath in March as the country’s first civilian president, stoking investor interest from ASEAN countries and further afield.
Myanmar stopped short of its economic potential last year though. Intense flooding over a three-month period, exacerbated by cyclone Komen, set the economy back by USD1.5 billion or 3 percent of the country’s GDP, according to ADB.
Despite this setback, Myanmar is ready to welcome an influx of foreign investors and experts at the first Property Report Congress Myanmar, which be hosted by PropertyGuru next month in Yangon. At the top of the agenda will be a local real estate outlook in the current economic climate, and discussion on how to build a mortgage market.
Source: Property Report