Top and bottom Asian countries GDP and GDP per capita trend

As a result, the Japanese began their expansion by annexing a sizable portion of Korea and China, giving them access to critical resources. Southeast Asia was thriving at the same time as a result of trade and the introduction of a number of contemporary new technology. As soon as the Suez Canal was opened in the 1860s, commerce volume grew much more. From 1571 to 1815, Manila had its own Manila galleon, on which goods from China and the Philippine islands were exchanged with Spanish America. From Manila to Acapulco, the Spanish colony of the Philippines was the first Asian nation to engage in commerce with the Americas.

The first transoceanic commerce route stretched overland from what is now Mexico to Veracruz on the Atlantic coast, then on to Havana and Seville. Through the Philippines, Asia sent products such as silk, porcelain, ivory, tobacco, coconuts, and maize to the Americas and Europe. Singapore, established in 1819, became well-known as trade between the east and west grew incredibly quickly. The biggest producers of tin and rubber worldwide were in the former British colony of Malaya, which is now a part of Malaysia. On the other hand, the manufacturing of spices was well-known in the Dutch East Indies, or what is now Indonesia. To control their commerce in Asia, the British and the Dutch established their own trading firms.

The world experienced the Great Depression, or global economic depression, at the beginning of the 1930s. Asia shared in the anguish of both Europe and the United States and was not spared (except for the Soviet Union). Trade volume fell sharply in Asia and the rest of the world. Prices for many commodities started to drop due to the decline in demand, furthering the poverty of both locals and visitors. Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931, followed by the remainder of China and Southeast Asia, beginning the conflict that would eventually become known as the Asia-Pacific theatre of World War II.

Half of Asia’s population, the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of India, chose socialist policies to advance their domestic economies after World War II. The only successful economies outside of the Western World are Japan’s economy and that of the Four Asian Tigers (South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong). Due to the success of these four economies, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand opened up their economies and established manufacturing hubs focused on exports, which accelerated their growth throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Following World War II, the entire economy was undergoing a tremendous transformation under the central direction of the Japanese government. The Miracle on the Han River, often known as South Korea’s incredible economic success story, is another one. After the Korean War, the nation fell into poverty, and until the early 1970s, it was one of the world’s poorest nations (even poorer than North Korea). During this time, numerous conglomerates, or chaebols, such as Samsung, LG Corp, Hyundai, Kia, SK Group, and others saw rapid growth. The world’s most wired nation is now South Korea.

Up to the 1990s, Taiwan and Hong Kong both saw fast growth. Taiwan developed became, and is still, one of the primary manufacturing and R&D hubs for consumer electronics. However, Taiwan’s economy is mostly based on small- to medium-sized firms, unlike Japan and South Korea. On the other hand, Hong Kong’s financial sector expanded quickly as a result of its open market regulations, and many financial organizations chose to locate their Asian headquarters there. Hong Kong has consistently been regarded as having the freest economy in the world, and it is still among the top 5 financial centers in the world.

In the meantime, with their GDPs increasing at rates well above 7% annually in the 1980s and 1990s, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore were known as the Four Asian Tigers. Growing exports were the main driver of their economies. In the early 1990s, the Philippines finally started to open up its sluggish economy. [41] In 1995, not long after Vietnam and the United States reestablished diplomatic and commercial ties, the Vietnamese economy started to expand.

2020-present

The large-scale ongoing unrest in Asia is a result of the continent’s wide economic divides. While the economies of the world’s four largest economies—China, Japan, India, and South Korea—continue to grow, and Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka have started down the path of sustainable development, the areas immediately adjacent to these nations urgently require aid.

The region has an abundance of inexpensive labor, especially in China and India, where having a large workforce gives them an economic advantage over other nations, but the increase in living standards will eventually cause a slowdown. Asia is also plagued by political issues that jeopardize not only the region’s and the world’s economies but also the general stability of both. Pakistan and India, who share a nuclear weapon, regularly threaten one another, prompting the governments of both countries to spend extensively on the military.

Asia’s economy may also be endangering the world with its rising stockpile of foreign exchange reserves. China (Mainland – $2,454 billion and Hong Kong – $245 billion, June 2010), Japan ($1,019 billion, June 2009), Russia ($456 billion, April 2010), India ($516 billion, July 2020), Taiwan ($372 billion, September 2010), South Korea ($286 billion, July 2010), and Singapore ($206 billion), which are mostly in Asia, are the nations/regions with the largest foreign reserves. This implies that Asian central banks have a significant impact on the interchangeability of the Euro, USD, and GBP. Western economists perceive this as having a negative impact, which has prompted governments in those countries to take appropriate measures.

Top Asian countries’ GDP and GDP per capita trend