The Asian Development Outlook 2015 projects that developing Asia will grow at a steady 6.3% in 2015 and 2016, supported by a strengthening recovery in the major industrial economies and soft global commodity prices. The drop in international oil prices is taking pressure off of consumer prices. Inflation will slow from 3.1% in 2014 to 2.6% in 2015. As low oil prices are supporting growth in developing Asia, a sudden sharp reversal could undermine the outlook and require policy response. Similarly, while capital inflows to the region have been beneficial for growth, policy makers must carefully manage credit expansion to ensure that it does not lead to excessive leverage and asset price bubbles. Developing Asia needs a deep, robust financial sector to sustain growth. Policy makers will be challenged to ensure that financial sector development is inclusive, providing broad access to households and firms. Financial stability must also be maintained to enhance growth and equity.

Developing Asia faces considerable headwinds from slow recovery in the major industrial economies and moderating prospects for the large economies of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and India. Subdued demand from the industrial economies and the PRC has delayed the expected pickup in growth in other parts of Asia, including Southeast Asia’s larger economies. The region must strengthen its resilience under external shocks. Macroprudential policy can engender enough independence in monetary policy to counter destabilizing capital flows, while a well-developed domestic financial system can alleviate dependence on external borrowing and thereby reduce risk from currency depreciation. The region must mobilize untapped resources to give growth a much needed boost. This Asian Development Outlook Update 2015 highlights how realizing women’s equal rights and contributions to economic and political life can yield ample benefits. While the region has made considerable progress over the past several decades in closing gender gaps in health and education, much remains to be done to erase them in the labor market. This will both marshal more human resources to boost economic growth and do the right thing for women as individuals.

The Asian Development Outlook is ADB's main economic forecasting product. It is published each April with an Update published in September and brief Supplements published in July and December.

The Asian Development Outlook 2014 projects that developing Asia's growth will increase from 6.1% in 2013 to 6.2% in 2014 and 6.4% in 2015. Moderating growth in the People's Republic of China as its economy adjusts to more balanced growth will offset to some extent the stronger demand expected from the industrial countries as their economies recover. Risks to the outlook have eased and are manageable. The monetary policy shift in the United States may invite some volatility ahead in financial markets, albeit mitigated by accommodative monetary policy in Japan and the euro area. The regional growth outlook depends on continued recovery in the major industrial economies and on the People's Republic of China managing to contain internal credit growth smoothly. Widening income gaps in developing Asia strengthens the case for greater use of fiscal policy to foster equality of opportunity. While the region has benefited from fiscal prudence in the past, demographic and environmental challenges are expected to compete for public resources in the coming years. To boost public spending on equity-enhancing programs such as education and health without undermining fiscal sustainability, the authorities will need to explore a wide range of options for mobilizing revenue and to build equity objectives into their fiscal plans.

Developing Asia is maintaining steady growth momentum. Despite recovery in the major industrialized economies falling short of expectations, the region is on track to meet its favorable forecasts as policy stabilizes investment in the People’s Republic of China and signs emerge of a long-awaited turnaround in India. Inflation is held in check across most regional economies by benign international commodity prices, subdued domestic demand, and prudent policy. Even if global liquidity tightens earlier in 2015 than anticipated, its effect on developing Asia should be modest. Asian Development Outlook 2014 Update reviews global value chains and how these cross-border production networks have enhanced income and employment in East and Southeast Asia. It considers what policy makers can do to encourage their improvement and spread to other parts of Asia and the Pacific.

The Asian Development Outlook 2013 estimates that regional economic growth in the Asia Pacific region will pick up to 6.6% in 2013 and reach 6.7% in 2014. This is a distinct improvement on 2012, when growth stood at just over 6%. Consumer prices are expected to rise by 4.0% in 2013 and 4.2% in 2014, up from 3.7% last year. Leading regional economies are settling into a pattern of more moderate, more sustainable growth, founded on new opportunities nearer to home, including domestic consumption and intra-regional trade. Meanwhile, Asia's contributions to global imbalances---its persistent current account surpluses---are smoothly winding down. Yet, developing Asia's recovery phase remains vulnerable to shocks. Strong capital inflows could feed asset bubbles, for example.

This book is a history of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), a multilateral development bank established 50 years ago to serve Asia and the Pacific. Focusing on the region's economic development, the evolution of the international development agenda, and the story of ADB itself, this book raises several key questions: What are the outstanding features of regional development to which ADB had to respond? How has the bank grown and evolved in changing circumstances? How did ADB's successive leaders promote reforms while preserving continuity with the efforts of their predecessors? ADB has played an important role in the transformation of Asia and the Pacific over the past 50 years. As ADB continues to evolve and adapt to the region's changing development landscape, the experiences highlighted in this book can provide valuable insight on how best to serve Asia and the Pacific in the future.

This important book analyzes nuclear weapon and energy policies in Asia, a region at risk for high-stakes military competition, conflict, and terrorism. The contributors explore the trajectory of debates over nuclear energy, security, and nonproliferation in key countries—China, India, Japan, Pakistan, South Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, and other states in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Arguing against conventional wisdom, the contributors make a convincing case that domestic variables are far more powerful than external factors in shaping nuclear decision making. The book explores what drives debates and how decisions are framed, the interplay between domestic dynamics and geopolitical calculations in the discourse, where the center of gravity of debates lies in each country, and what this means for regional cooperation or competition and U.S. nuclear energy and nonproliferation policy in Asia.