In The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (The EIU) latest global outlook video, Agathe Demarais, Tom Rafferty, and Nick Marro, discuss our forecasts for Cross-Strait relations between Taiwan and China, and other key geopolitical and economic issues to keep an eye on in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Cross-Strait topic has global repercussions: given the military ties between Taiwan and the US, any conflict between China and Taiwan would raise the risk of a direct conflict between the US and China. Nevertheless, we are still expecting China to tread cautiously here, particularly in relation to potential US involvement.

Turning to the economic outlook, the Asia region experienced the shallowest recession in 2020 compared to others. However the vaccine rollout is slow and we expect that many countries will still be dealing with Covid-related restrictions into 2022, which will weigh on the growth outlook.

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