KUALA LUMPUR: A surge in artificial intelligence (AI)-related demand is fueling Asia’s technology export boom and boosting economic growth, including in Malaysia, according to S&P Global Ratings.
Strong export growth is a major tailwind for the economies of high-tech manufacturing countries, S&P said in a report titled “2026 Asia-Pacific Q3 Economic Outlook: AI-Exposed Markets to Outperform”.
“This is particularly true in Taiwan, South Korea and Vietnam, but also in Singapore, mainland China, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan,” the report said.
S&P said high-tech shipments of products such as memory chips are likely to continue to grow strongly in 2026, but an increasing portion of this export growth is due to higher prices rather than higher volumes.
According to the report, overall export prices in dollar terms rose 31.6% year-on-year in South Korea and 17.4% in Taiwan in April, suggesting a significant improvement in terms of trade even amid soaring energy import prices.
The rating agency said that in most countries where high-tech manufacturing is relatively important to the economy, the positive effects of the high-tech export boom will outweigh any unfavorable energy shocks.
For Southeast Asia, S&P said the outlook is balanced between strong electronics-related activity, generally stable domestic demand and energy stress.
“In addition to benefiting from the technology export boom, most Southeast Asian countries are seeing investment in data centers to support construction and capital investment.
“That is especially true for Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.
“Overall, we are revising our outlook for the region slightly lower due to the significant downward revision in the Philippines and stable outlook elsewhere. This compares to our outlook in March, when we revised growth rates upward in several countries,” it added.
Meanwhile, at the Asia-Pacific level, S&P maintains its baseline forecast for gross domestic product (GDP) excluding China at 4.5% in 2026, unchanged from March, and expects growth in 2027 to be 4.4%.
The report said the economic outlook for Asia-Pacific will be shaped by resilient global activity, stress in energy markets and an AI-driven technology export boom. – Bernama
