Growth in the region is expected to slow sharply to 2.2% in 2020 under the effects of the current health emergency and then rebound to 6.2% in 2021. Excluding Asia's high-income newly industrialized economies, growth will drop from 5.7% to 2.4% this year before recovering to 6.7% next year. Headline inflation accelerated in 2019 as food prices edged up but remained low by historical standards. Inflation will climb further to 3.2% in 2020, but declining food prices in the latter half of the year will set the stage for easing inflation in 2021. Downside risks to the outlook are severe, most notably from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In these difficult times, when challenges to growth abound, innovation is critical to inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth. While some economies in developing Asia are near or at the global innovation frontier, many others lag behind. This issue of the Asian Development Outlook includes a Special Topic: The Impact of the Coronavirus Outbreak-An Update.

This is the true story about the future that few visionaries have the knowledge necessary to put together. In order to drive the development of technology and sustainability forward there will be a need for considerable investment and collective action. The need to drive large-scale development and transformation activity is usually overlooked when experts in narrow fields project present trends into the future. The foundation of our future has been laid, or maybe not, by past decisions and activities, or lack thereof, by politicians and their voters. The enemy has already been identified and many of us know that is it us, but few ofour leaders have a picture of the path forward that needs to be taken in order to create the future that many people already see as inevitable. We try to contribute on the basis of different pictures of how the future might be created, but large-scale changes cannot be achieved through small-scale activities. It took 400,000 Americans and almost ten years to send three men to the moon in 1969. The following facts may be noted: the transformation to electric mobility is still in its infancy; less than one per cent of cars are electric and the growth is very slow in most countries. Artificial intelligence is also at an early stage of development and the technologies necessary in order to make Industry 4.0 a reality are still too expensive to be applied on a large scale and by most companies. The same is true for the principles of the circular economy. So far mostly low-hanging fruit have been picked and the principles have not been developed to a point where they can be universally applied. In order to create the future that many already see as inevitable there is a need for substantial investment and even larger transformation programmes. If existing generations want to experience it, instead of something much worse, we need to get our act together and approach transformation in a systematic manner. This book presents a well-founded argument about the remedies of contemporary societal challenges, and offers a much needed, sobered-uplook at the complex endeavors that lie ahead. Larsson's book disentangles intricate concepts connected to technology, business, industry and society, and does it free from the jargon and romanticizing we often encounter in everyday conversation. - Professor Thomas Kalling at Lund University School of Economics & Management.

Countries regularly track gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of their economic progress, but not wealth - the assets such as infrastructure, forests, minerals, and human capital that produce GDP. In contrast, corporations routinely report on both their income and assets to assess their economic health and prospects for the future. Wealth accounts allow countries to take stock of their assets to monitor the sustainability of development, an urgent concern today for all countries. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018: Building a Sustainable Future covers national wealth for 141 countries over 20 years (1995-2014) as the sum of produced capital, 19 types of natural capital, net foreign assets, and human capital overall as well as by gender and type of employment. Great progress has been made in estimating wealth since the fi rst volume, Where Is the Wealth of Nations? Measuring Capital for the 21st Century, was published in 2006. New data substantially improve estimates of natural capital, and, for the first time, human capital is measured by using household surveys to estimate lifetime earnings. The Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 begins with a review of global and regional trends in wealth over the past two decades and provides examples of how wealth accounts can be used for the analysis of development patterns. Several chapters discuss the new work on human capital and its application in development policy. The book then tackles elements of natural capital that are not yet fully incorporated in the wealth accounts: air pollution, marine fisheries, and ecosystems. This book targets policy makers but will engage anyone committed to building a sustainable future for the planet.