MANILA -- Southeast Asia's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic will be much slower than initially expected, the Asian Development Bank said in a report on Wednesday, as the region continues to wrestle with the highly infectious delta variant.
Southeast Asia's gross domestic product is expected to grow 3.1% this year before expanding by 5% next year, according to an update to Asian Development Outlook, ADB's widely followed economic publication. The new 2021 outlook is lower than the 4% forecast in July, which was already a downward revision from the bank's original projection of 4.4% in April.
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