What do high-frequency indicators tell us about economic activity in South Asia?
Earth Night At South and Central Asia From Space. Jayjune69/Shutterstock.com
Last year, South Asia imposed some of the world's strictest lockdowns to combat the spread of COVID-19. As a result, the region's economy shrank by 5.4 percent in 2020, its largest-ever decline.
As noted in our recent South Asia Economic Focus, recovery is underway but uneven as some countries, especially those dependent on tourism, are still reeling from the pandemic impacts. The report uses a number of high-frequency indicators including electricity consumption, nighttime lights intensity and nitrogen dioxide emissions (at the urban level) to understand the nature of the recovery. The blog discusses the two main indicators used to understand changes to GDP.