Poverty and Growth in Southeast Asia

Over recent decades, most countries of Southeast Asia achieved reductions in absolute poverty incidence, but these reductions varied in magnitude between countries and over time. This paper shows that differences in the rate and sectoral composition of economic growth explain part, but not all, of these differences. It describes outcomes on poverty incidence in Southeast Asia and relates them to the growth of output in the agricultural, industrial and services sectors. This analysis uses data from the 1970s to the most recent available for Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines to analyse the economic determinants of changes in poverty incidence in Southeast Asia.