2023 will likely present investors with a stark economic divergence – between a West in recession and an East where growth will be boosted by recovery in China. ASEAN-5, which already enjoyed its own reopening rebound in 2022, will likely ride the tailwinds of China’s turn at a reopening recovery in the coming year. In this article, we would discuss how ASEAN-5 will likely continue to be in a sweet spot in 2023, offering some of the highest economic growth rates with relatively moderate inflation.

As the Developed Markets are weathering havoc from increasingly hawkish rate hike actions, ASEAN equities continue to retain relative calm and outperform DM as a regional expression of global value trade. While the trajectory for economic upgrades and earnings growth prospects remain intact, as DMs slide deeper into bear markets, some tweaking of the ASEAN trade – as a pure Emerging Market play – might achieve even better relative outperformance. In this article our Senior Advisor Say Boon Lim discussed drivers behind the outperformance of our Emerging ASEAN strategy against MSCI World Growth, and what investors with the flexibility for a spread trade might consider as the dynamics will likely remain in place for the rest of this year.