The Philippines is a Rising Tiger in Southeast Asia

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Now, as much as I want the Philippines to succeed, I'm going to be a little skeptical here. At the end of World War II, plenty of people predicted that the Philippines would become the economic powerhouse/regional power of the Asia-Pacific region because it by far was the wealthiest country (per person) in Asia. Burma being second.

Now, I'm not too knowledgeable about the Filipino society/economy, so I'm not exactly too sure why the Philippines failed to launch. And perhaps those reasons really are gone now. But for now, I'm going to stay somewhat skeptical of very bold predictions about the Philippines.

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Because Taiwan and South Korea are horrible, horrible places to live.

B-b-but! Having a lower income inequality and much higher average income than Europe means that they are HELL ON EARTH.

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Obviously Taiwan and South Korea are going to slow down in their growth since their economy has matured. They are both countries that are more developed than a lot of their Asian neighbors.

That being said, Koenkai, I am pretty sure their income is not higher than Europe...even including eastern Europe.

Depends whether we're adjusting with PPP or not. If we adjust with purchasing power parity, Taiwan is nustled with Germany, Belgium, and Denmark. While South Korea is slightly above the EU average.

And you would think their growth would slow down because of their demographic problems. But Citibank doesn't think so. Taiwan especially won't, simply because proximity to the mainland gives it huge opportunities.

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I was talking about current events obviously. And in any case I wouldn't trust projections to 2050.

Well, I don't trust the projections exactly either. But what they do show is that there is a general consensus that the economic trajectory of Taiwan/Korea is positive. I think that prediction is actually way too bullish (I'm actually an East Asia bear), but the trendline is still going to be positive. These countries are already significantly above the EU mean and this gap will probably only get larger as time goes on.