ASEAN Countries' Economic Growth Slows Due to Trade War

The trade war between the two global economic giants, China and the United States (US), has negatively impacted the global economy, including Southeast Asia. Singapore is threatened with a recession in 2019. Furthermore, Singapore has slashed its economic growth forecast for 2019 to a range of 0%-1%, down from the previous forecast of 1.5%-2.5%.

According to data from *Trading Economics*, Singapore's economic growth in the second quarter of 2019 was 0.1%. Although still positive, this figure represents a significant slowdown compared to 1.1% in the first quarter of 2019 and 4.2% in the second quarter of 2018. Besides Singapore, Thailand's economic growth also slowed, from 2.8% in the first quarter of 2019 to 2.3% in the second quarter of 2019, a decrease of 0.5%. Furthermore, Thailand's economic growth slowed to 2.4% in the second quarter of 2019 from 4.7% in the second quarter of 2018.

Domestically, Indonesia also felt the impact of the trade war. In the second quarter of 2019, Indonesia's economy grew by only 5.05%, compared to 5.27% in the same period the previous year.

Only Malaysia and Vietnam recorded stable economic growth. Malaysia's economic growth increased to 4.9% in the second quarter of 2019, up from 4.5% in both the first quarter of 2019 and the second quarter of 2018. Vietnam's economic growth stood at 6.71% in the second quarter of 2019, compared to 6.82% in the first quarter of 2019 and 6.73% in the second quarter of 2018.