Economic Indicators

The data provided by ASEAN shows that all the countries which belong to the organization export a bigger percentage of goods outside the association rather than inside it. The country which exports the most intra-ASEAN is Laos (49,6% out of total exports) and the one that exports the least is Cambodia (8,6%), which at the same time are the same ones which exports the least and the most extra-ASEAN (50,4% and 91,4% respectively). This also proves that the extra-exports of goods are more than three times higher than the intra-exports.

Referring to the GDP per capita, the richest country has always been Singapore (one of the founding members) with 52,963$, followed by Brunei Darussalam with 26,493$ (which is the half). A curious fact which is worth to mention is that these particular two countries reduced their GDP per capita value from 2015 to 2016, while the poorest ones increased it. This phenomena determined the rise of the average to 4,034$, which is still a pretty low value. Specifically, the two poorest countries are Cambodia and Myanmar with 1,266$ and 1,297$ respectively.

In the case of the annual GDP growth, it is interesting to remark that Myanmar in 2007 was the country with the biggest growth, being the one which has lost the most GDP value (more than a 6% of loss). In spite of it, Brunei Dalassaram is the country which has the worst GDP value, having had losing progressively almost a 3% of it, becoming the only member with a negative value of -2,5% On the other side, the one who has gained the most is Philippines with almost 1% from 2015 to 2016, but currently the country with the highest growth is Laos with a 7%.

Speaking about inequalities, one should refer to the GINI index, which shows that the higher is the value, the more unequal is a particular country. According to the data provided by the World Bank in 2017, the two most unequal countries are precisely the richest ones, which are Malaysia and Singapore with a 46,3%. On the other side one can appreciate Cambodia and Vietnam as the most equal members, having approximately values of 30% and 35% respectively. This confirms the positive correlation between wealth and inequality. It is also worth to mention that the Brunei Darassalam government has never provided this kind of information, which can lead one to deduct that inequalities are very present in the country and not as much in the political sphere’s agenda. This should not be surprising, taking into account the fact that it is the second richest country in terms of GDP per capita.