Hyderabad to pip top global cities in APAC region: Oxford Economics

HYDERABAD: Hyderabad, which is vying for the tag of a truly global city, is projected to pip top cities like Bangkok, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong and Tokyo in the fastest Asia Pacific (APAC) major cities in 2023. According to Oxford Economics, Hyderabad and Bengaluru are projected to most likely continue to outperform their Asia Pacific and Indian peers in terms of growth in 2023, with the information and communication sector as the main driver.

These two south Indian cities are likely to grow by more than 6 per cent in 2023. Their strength comes from the economic dynamism of south India, which has attracted many investments in sectors such as manufacturing and information and communication, it said.

“While we expect 2023 to be a difficult year for cities in the Asia Pacific region, we still see some bright spots. Notably, we expect cities that are less exposed to weak global trade and those with strength in fast-growing sectors to show some resilience. Furthermore, Chinese cities will probably benefit from a loosening of Covid-19 restrictions in 2023,” the report said.

Oxford Economics is a global independent economic advisory firm which does forecasting and econometric analysis. It was founded in Oxford in 1981 as a commercial venture with Oxford University’s business college. This company has over 300 economists and analysts in 20 offices across the world.

Its baseline forecast for 2023 is for a global recession, starting in Q4 2022 and comprising three straight quarters of negative growth in world GDP per person, with Europe and North America badly affected. As a result, 2023 is expected to be a difficult year for APAC, as problems originating from elsewhere impinge on its growth rate, especially during the first half of the year, and as more local factors such as the less-than-complete recovery in supply chains, and the uncertain outlook for Covid-19 in China, impinge directly.