Manila is among the emerging cities in Asia expected to see faster growth this year amid the further reopening of the economy, think tank Oxford Economics said.

In the report titled 'Regional Outlook Asia Pacific: Slowdown in 2023 Except for Chinese Cities,' Oxford Economics said Manila is among those expected to do well in terms of economic growth this year.

The think tank expects 2022 to be a strong year for emerging Asian cities in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) growth, with the average growth rate seen accelerating to seven percent this year from 4.4 percent last year.

'Emerging Asian cities will report faster growth in 2022 than in 2021. This is explained in part by the presence of catch-up growth in these cities, due to their late removal of COVID-19-related restrictions,' Oxford Economics said.

It said most of the social distancing measures and travel restrictions imposed due to the pandemic, were dropped this year, allowing city economies to recover.

'This has helped sectors such as transport and hospitality,' Oxford Economics said.

In addition, it said there was strong global demand for goods in the first half of this year.

'This was particularly true for semiconductors, of which emerging Asian cities are major producers. That pushed up the growth rates of the likes of Manila and Ho Chi Minh City,' Oxford Economics added.

In contrast, it said advanced Asia Pacific cities are expected to experience slower economic growth this year compared to 2021.

For 2023, Oxford Economics expects slower growth in Asia Pacific cities except for Chinese cities, which are following a different path due to its government's strict zero-COVID policy.

'After a difficult 2022, we expect Chinese cities to recover in 2023,' it said, noting though that growth will be below past trends in most cases.

Across major emerging Asian cities, its forecast is for average growth to drop by about two percentage points to 4.9 percent next year.

'As advanced economies in North America and Europe see their economic growth slowdown in 2023, we expect this trend to feed through to emerging Asia Pacific cities, albeit to a lesser extent,' it said.

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