Korea's Rapid Aging Doesn't Have to Be Economic Destiny

April 3, 2025--Boosting AI adoption, increasing labor participation, and allocating resources more efficiently can help offset the economic drag from an aging population
Strong economic fundamentals and sound macroeconomic policies have helped the Korean economy through multiple shocks in recent years. However, potential growth has slowed more quickly than in other major advanced economies, and the economic expansion is likely to moderate this year.

The country also is aging more rapidly than almost all others. That's likely to reduce the labor supply and weigh on investment demand, further lowering growth and diminishing living standards. Aging could shrink the labor force by more than a quarter by 2050, leading to an average annual decline of 0.67 percentage point in potential growth, according to our latest Article IV report.

New World Bank Report Charts Pathways for Energy Security, New Jobs, and Market Opportunities in East Asia

August 28, 2025-A new World Bank report, Green Horizon: East Asia's Sustainable Energy Future, outlines practical pathways to modernize and upgrade the region's energy systems to support power and industrial sectors-a key step for East Asia to sustain long-term growth, create jobs, and retain economic competitiveness.

Dissecting Medium-Term Growth Prospects for Asia

August 22, 2025-Summary
This paper explores Asia-Pacific's medium-term growth prospects using two approaches. First, growth accounting analysis and machine-learning estimation reveal how demographics, capital deepening, productivity, and human capital shaped Asia's growth.