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Coronavirus pandemic
This Week in AsiaOpinion
Cassey Lee
Siwage Dharma Negara
Maxensius Tri Sambodo
Cassey Lee,Siwage Dharma NegaraandMaxensius Tri Sambodo

Opinion | Southeast Asia dodged the worst of Covid-19, but the economic devastation may last for years

  • Despite having a smaller share of total infections than other parts of the world, Covid-19’s economic impact in Southeast Asia has been severe
  • Recovery will depend on countries’ exposure to the global economy and their ability to control contagion without resorting to stringent lockdown measures

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A newly constructed Covid-19 isolation facility in Manila, capital of the Philippines. Photo: EPA
Cassey Lee,Siwage Dharma NegaraandMaxensius Tri Sambodo
Southeast Asia has not suffered as much from the coronavirus pandemic as many other parts of the world. Despite having about 9 per cent of the global population, it has only registered around 2 per cent of the total cases, and 1 per cent of the fatalities.

This was partly thanks to early draconian measures such as cross-border travel restrictions and lockdowns that many countries in the region implemented – but these also had a significant impact on their economies, particularly in the second quarter.

Attempts to control the spread of Covid-19 have also been very uneven. In the Philippines and Indonesia, there appears to have been a lack of progress in containing the pandemic, while for other countries such as Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, their infection curves indicate that the contagion is under control. In Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam, however, low testing rates have led to some degree of uncertainty about relative caseloads.
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POLICY RESPONSES

The economic cost of the pandemic is partly a result of different governments’ responses to it. Containment and closure measures, in particular, had a severe dampening effect on many Southeast Asian economies.

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Retail and recreation were particularly hard hit in Myanmar, Malaysia and the Philippines, which saw deep declines in activity of between 72 and 82 per cent. Social restriction measures were also implemented for a relatively long time in these countries.

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