(UPDATE) CONSUMER spending in the Asia-Pacific region has yet to fully recover from the impact of Covid-19, Moody's Analytics said, particularly in the Philippines where it remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels.
"Big shifts in consumer spending through the Covid-19 pandemic have still not fully reversed in many Asia-Pacific countries," Moody's Analytics economists Stefan Angrick and Jeemin Bang said in a report.
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Spending on services is almost back to normal in high-income developed economies countries, they said, especially in South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia, but was still to fully recover in Japan and New Zealand.
Spending in the Philippines and Thailand, meanwhile, remains much lower than it was before the pandemic — an indication of how much both economies were hurt by the pandemic.
"The slow recovery of tourism is a contributing factor," Moody's Analytics economists said.
They also highlighted significant differences in goods consumption across the region, with Taiwan a standout due to a technology boom.
In advanced nations such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand, meanwhile, spending on goods was said to have remained steady.
In the Philippines and Thailand, again, this declined due to low government support for households and the greater economic impact from the pandemic.
The slowdown in goods consumption in New Zealand, South Korea, the Philippines, and Australia were said to be due to factors such as persistent inflation and decreased government assistance that were affecting household spending.
Still, the economists noted that "goods typically make up a smaller share of private consumption than services, so weaker goods consumption won't completely derail these economies as long as services consumption stays on course."
However, they pointed out that weaker spending on goods would add to the challenges these economies face, especially during a period of already sluggish growth.
In 2023, household spending growth in the Philippines dropped to 5.6 percent from 8.3 percent in 2022.
Economic growth, meanwhile, slowed to 5.6 percent last year from 7.6 percent in 2022.
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