(Yicai Global) March 29 -- Asia's gross domestic product is expected to increase by 4.5 percent this year, according to an annual economic outlook from the Boao Forum for Asia that described the region as a global “bright spot.”

Asia’s economic recovery is likely to continue in 2023 despite slower growth worldwide and the “risk of increasing fragmentation of globalization,” according to the Asian Economic Outlook and Integration Progress report published yesterday.

The BFA’s forecast is 0.3 percentage points higher than Asia’s annual GDP growth of 4.2 percent last year.

“Asia is expected to accelerate its pace of economic growth, continue to advance regional production, trade, investment and financial integration and cohesion, and seize the 'Asian moment' for global economic governance,” the report said.

The Asian economy will give the world confidence, according to the report. Although the global labor market will likely deteriorate and jobs growth in some Asian regions will probably remain sluggish this year, Asia, particularly East Asia, may have a better-than-expected employment situation.

Inflation pressures in Asia are expected to ease despite factors pushing prices up and down coexisting, the report noted. The decline in commodity prices from a peak, and restrained consumption because of slowing global economic growth will ease the pressure of imported inflation.

The International Monetary Fund raised its annual forecast for global GDP this year to 2.9 percent in January from a 2.7 percent prediction made last October, Zhang Yuyan, editor-in-chief of the BFA’s report, told Yicai Global. Seventy-two percent of the 0.2 percentage point increase comes from China, he added.

China and India alone will contribute half of global economic growth this year, according to IMF data. Each percentage point increase in China's GDP growth will raise the output of other Asian regions by about 0.3 point, the IMF said, noting that the rest of Asia will contribute a quarter of the world's economic growth.

China's high-quality development and opening-up have spurred a fast recovery, which is a key factor steadying the world economy, Zhang said. The Chinese economy's development is not only Asia's but also the world’s stabilizer, added Zhang, who is also a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the director of the CASS' Institute of World Economics and Politics.

The Boao Forum for Asia is being held in China’s Hainan province through March 31.

Editors: Xu Wei, Futura Costaglione