The ASEAN has excited consumer goods businesses not only with its exceptionally fast pace of economic development over the past decades, but also and more importantly because of its long-term potential
as a collectively youthful and dynamic consumer market:
• If the ASEAN was a single economy, it would be the 7th largest
in the world with total GDP of US$2.5 trillion in 2014. Euromonitor International forecasts that by 2030, it could become the third largest economy in the world, behind only the USA and China.
• With over 622 million people as of 2014, the ASEAN’s consumer market is larger in total consumer number than the European Union (EU), which had a population of 502 million in the same year. It is also bigger than North America, which had 354 million consumers in 2014.
• It is also a younger market than the EU, China and North America. In 2014, half of the ASEAN’s population was below 28.8 years of age, compared to 38 in North America, 40.8 in China and 42.1 in the EU.
• The ASEAN consumer market is expected to expand rapidly, with total consumer expenditure forecast to grow by 105% in real terms between 2015 and 2030 – equivalent to an average annual real growth of 4.9%
in real terms. By 2030, the ASEAN will be a market worth US$3.1 trillion in constant 2014 prices.