Trade war's next casualty? Growth in Southeast Asia's 6 biggest economies

For Southeast Asia’s biggest economies, 2018 wasn’t supposed to be like this. If a widening trade war wasn’t enough to contend with, a global wave of policy tightening, strong oil prices and domestic politics are also weighing on growth prospects for the region. Policy makers are rewriting economic strategies as volatility surges, in some cases putting greater emphasis on currency stability or even structural changes. Collateral damage Southeast Asia engulfed in emerging-market rout Trade war "With trade war risks now materialising, this suggests stronger headwinds for exports," said Tamara Henderson, an economist at Bloomberg Economics in Singapore. "Investment, already buffeted by tighter monetary policy, is also likely to be a casualty." Election uncertainty in Indonesia and Thailand, as well as questions around the new Malaysian government’s commitment to fiscal consolidation, could add to investor angst in the region for the rest of 2018, said Henderson.