The figure has been released on March 31 in the bank’s flagship annual economic publication, Asian Development Outlook 2009 (ADO 2009).

Two other countries in the region that also enjoy positive GDP growths, according to ADB forecast, are Indonesia (3.6%) and the Philippines (2.5%). The three remaining countries are forecast to have negative growths, Singapore (-5%), Thailand (-2%) and Malaysia(-0.2%).

According to ADO 2009, all six countries in the region will enjoy positive GDP growths in 2010 and Vietnam will still achieve the highest growth of 6.5%. ADB also forecasts that Vietnam’s inflation will be relatively low in both 2009 and 2010, at 4% and 5% respectively.