State of the Region 2023 Supplement

While efforts are made to ensure that the views of the PECC members are taken into account, the opinions and the facts contained in this report are the sole responsibility of the authors and editorial committee and do not necessarily reflect those of the member committees of PECC, nor their individual members. [...] This stands in sharp contrast to the heady days of the 1990s, when, in spite of the 1997-98 crisis the region grew at 3.5 percent and again in the 2000s when, again, even with the Global Financial Crisis, the region grew at an average of 3.4 percent. [...] That came in the immediate aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, that price hike pushed an estimated 44 million people into poverty.2 The Bank estimates that trade policies such as export bans were responsible for 45% of the run-up in the international rice price and for 30% of the wheat price increase in the 2008 crisis. [...] While the economic cost has been increasing, the data also shows that the number of deaths from the same types of natural disasters in the Asia-Pacific has dropped from as high as 8 million during the 1920s to 121,000 in 2000. [...] While the total wealth people in the region is growing, for example the personal wealth of the bottom 50 percent has more than doubled since 1995, the personal wealth of the top 1 percent is growing at a much faster rate.