Technology

Mastercard Economics Institute: APAC growth expected to hold steady in 2025; global policy resets may see shift in gears

Published

1 year ago

December 10, 2024

Most APAC economies to see slight pickup in GDP growth

Uptick expected in consumer discretionary spend, focusing on travel, big-ticket purchases and experiences

SINGAPORE, Dec. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — The Mastercard Economics Institute (MEI) has released its annual economic outlook for 2025, forecasting continued growth for Asia Pacific aligned with 2024 levels, while lower inflation and easing interest rates are set to provide relief to consumers and households. This is largely in line with broader economic trends, as the global economy is expected to see 3.2 percent growth following a pace of 3.1 percent in 2024.

As the disinflationary environment eases the burden on consumers, MEI forecasts that APAC will see tight labor markets and a catch-up of inflation-adjusted wages, which is expected to contribute to increased spending—especially on discretionary items, including big-ticket purchases such as electronics, furniture and appliances. While some of the pent-up demand for experience spending has subsided, consumers are still prioritizing big-ticket moments, such as major concerts and events.

Travel in APAC is expected to remain robust, though total passenger numbers in mid-2024 were still 12 percent short of 2019 levels. Some of this shortfall is the result of outbound travel from Northeast Asia—particularly the Chinese Mainland and Japan—having yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.

“If 2024 was about ‘getting back to normal’, 2025 is about normalization as volatility subsides and easing monetary policy allows consumers to benefit from economic growth,” said David Mann, chief economist, Asia Pacific, Mastercard. “However, policy decisions like potential interest rate rises in Japan or U.S. tariffs could significantly impact this growth. Businesses should leverage consumer optimism while preparing for potential trade disruptions.”

APAC Outlook

India is expected to be the fastest-growing major economy in calendar year 2025, with a GDP growth of 6.6 percent and consumer spending growth of 6.2 percent, driven by a rising middle class and investment, as it is less exposed to global demand.Chinese Mainland is expected to stabilize with 4.5 percent growth in 2025, driven by increased government stimulus and pro-growth measures to counteract economic headwinds like weakened consumer confidence and a slowdown in the housing market.Malaysia’s economy is expected to outperform in 2025 with 4.7 percent GDP growth, driven by a robust labor market and strengthening investment.Japan faces a unique economic environment with continued inflation volatility and the Yen at historic lows, contributing to the ongoing tourism boom and spending on high-end luxury goods.Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, having experienced stronger inflation shocks than the rest of the region, are likely to see relief as levels fall to approximately 2-3 percent and central banks ease their respective monetary policies.

Trends to Watch

1. Pricing Priorities: Travel “Twins” and Mass Apparel

MEI has observed that travelers are opting for destinations that offer similar experiences to popular hotspots but with lower prices and smaller crowds. These “travel twins” are growing faster and seeing higher year-on-year increases in hotel bookings. For example, Lombok in Indonesia, with its stunning beaches and serene landscapes, is an ideal alternative to Bali, while Fukuoka in Japan offers a Tokyo-like experience without the high costs and crowds.

Similarly, consumers are seeking more cost-effective apparel options. MEI found that, in terms of YTD spending growth, mass apparel brands are outpacing luxury ones globally by an average of 7 percentage points. However, Japan is an outlier, with the depreciating Yen boosting visitor spending on luxury goods, resulting in high-end brand growth outpacing mass market growth by 14 percentage points.

“Even though consumers are set to spend in 2025, there are some caveats,” said Mann. “For essential purchases without substitutes, increased prices are unlikely to affect sales. However, where alternatives exist, consumers may opt for more affordable versions of goods and experiences. This budget-conscious behavior may reflect residual caution after years of economic uncertainty and an attempt to balance a higher, yet relatively stable, cost of living.”

2. Migration and Money

The report highlights the crucial role of remittances for APAC economies, with four of the top five recipient countries being in the region: India, China, the Philippines, and Pakistan. Despite some loss of human capital in these economies due to outbound migration, remittances provide a lifeline for low- and middle-income communities. This is especially significant in South Asia, where remittances contribute over 6 percent of Sri Lanka’s GDP and 5 percent of Bangladesh’s GDP.

3. The “SHEconomy”

Based on OECD data, MEI finds that the cyclical labor force participation rate has more than fully recovered to 2019 levels for women in 38 of the 46 economies surveyed, while only 23 economies show higher participation for men. India stands out with the participation rate for women aged 25-54 up 12 percentage points from 2019 to 2023, compared to a 1 percentage point gain for men of the same age.

Policy: Shifting Gears?

Heading into 2025, Japan and the Chinese Mainland are taking proactive measures to shore up their economies. The Bank of Japan continues to raise interest rates to combat ongoing inflation, an outlier in a region where inflation has mostly eased. Meanwhile, the Chinese government has announced pro-growth actions, including cuts to give banks more latitude, a swap facility for non-bank financial institutions to borrow from the People’s Bank of China to purchase stocks, and reducing the down-payment requirement for second home purchases to a historic low of 15 percent.

“The policies of individual governments could have substantial knock-on effects in 2025,” adds Mann. “For instance, part of the shortfall in APAC tourism is due to decreased outbound travel from Northeast Asia. Further recovery may depend on how successfully the Chinese Mainland and Japan stabilize their economies. While there is uncertainty around increased tariffs, MEI suggests that some impacts can be offset by greater intra-regional trade and growing trade in data and services.”

MEI’s Economic Outlook 2025 examined 13 markets[1] across Asia and Oceania, using multiple public and proprietary data sets, including aggregated and anonymized Mastercard sales activity, and models estimating economic activity. Additional reports and insights from MEI can be found here.

About Mastercard Economics Institute

The Mastercard Economics Institute (MEI) provides insights into global and local economic trends using advanced analytics and Mastercard’s proprietary data assets. Established in 2020, MEI supports businesses, governments, and policymakers with economic monitoring services and timely analysis on economic themes including consumer spending, retail and travel trends, and other local and global barometers of economic performance. MEI offers valuable perspectives to inform decision-making and promote sustainable growth worldwide through our thought leadership series, and through Mastercard’s specialized product offerings.

[1] Australia, Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand

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SOURCE Mastercard

Technology

AdaKami Contributes to National Dialogue on Strengthening Fraud Risk Management

Published

31 minutes ago

April 24, 2026

JAKARTA, Indonesia, April 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The continued rise in digital fraud highlights increasing risks to consumer protection and the sustainability of Indonesia’s digital financial ecosystem. Data from Indonesia Anti-Scam Centre (IASC) under the Financial Services Authority of Indonesia (OJK) recorded over 432,000 digital fraud reports between November 2024 and January 2026, with total losses reaching approximately IDR 9.1 trillion.

In response, AdaKami, a licensed fintech lending platform by OJK, continues to strengthen its fraud risk management framework through enhanced technology capabilities, ongoing user education, and collaborations with stakeholders.

This was reflected at the Executive Policy Collaborative Forum on Handling Digital Fraud and Scams, organized by The Indonesian Digitalization and Cybersecurity Association (ADIGSI) which brought together regulators, cybersecurity authorities, and industry associations including IASC OJK, the National Cyber and Crypto Agency (BSSN), the Indonesia Fintech Lending Association (AFPI), and the Indonesia Fintech Association (AFTECH). The forum underscored the importance of coordinated efforts to strengthen fraud prevention and reinforce the anti-scam governance ecosystem.

Alongside industry and regulatory stakeholders, AdaKami reiterated its commitment and efforts to strengthen fraud prevention, by integrating technology, education, and collaboration as core pillars of consumer protection.

“Fraud and digital scams have evolved into a systemic challenge that requires coordinated action across regulators, industry, and stakeholders,” said Hudiyanto, Head of Secretariat of IASC OJK.

Karissa Sjawaldy, Chief of Public Affairs AdaKami, added: “AdaKami remains committed to strengthening consumer protection by enhancing technology-driven security systems, reinforcing user education, and maintaining close collaboration with regulators and industry partners.”

AdaKami continues to strengthen its security infrastructure through technology advancement, including AI, machine learning, and big data, to protect users on the platform and mitigate cyber threats. Concurrently, AdaKami recognizes the importance of user awareness in reducing fraud risks. Through ongoing educational initiatives such as the #SelaluWaspada campaign, AdaKami educates users to stay vigilant against evolving fraud schemes, including safeguarding personal information, recognizing common fraud tactics, and engaging only through official verified channels.

AdaKami remains focused on strengthening risk management, enhancing consumer trust, and supporting a more resilient digital financial ecosystem in Indonesia.

***

About AdaKami

Established in 2018, AdaKami is a licensed fintech lending platform in Indonesia, operated by PT Pembiayaan Digital Indonesia and supervised by OJK. AdaKami provides accessible financing through technology-driven, fast, and reliable services, bridging the gap between traditional financial institutions and underserved communities. More information: www.adakami.id

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SOURCE AdaKami

Technology

RWA.LTD Announces Comprehensive Consumer Goods Token Ecosystem Layout at Hong Kong Web3 Festival, Leading the Launch of the Consumer RWA Alliance

Published

2 hours ago

April 24, 2026

HONG KONG, April 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — During the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, RWA.LTD, the world’s first platform dedicated to consumer goods RWA (Real World Assets), officially announced the completion of its comprehensive consumer goods token ecosystem layout. At the event, the platform spearheaded the unveiling of the “Consumer RWA Alliance”. Positioned as the “Asian Consumer Goods Asset Trading Center,” RWA.LTD aims to enhance consumption efficiency through AI, reconstruct value distribution via Web3, and connect cross-city and cross-country consumer networks through tokens to accelerate the arrival of the “Smarter Consumer” era.

RWA.LTD stated that consumer goods RWA is not a single product, but a set of new infrastructure developed around consumption scenarios, the circulation of consumer rights, and brand interaction. Since CEO Fu, Rao Tony first proposed the concept of “Consumer Goods RWA” in late 2024, the team simultaneously prepared the RWA.LTD platform and completed Beta testing in September 2025. Following several months of iteration, the platform completed a comprehensive upgrade in mid-March 2026, marking RWA.LTD’s formal transition from the proof-of-concept stage to the ecological development stage.

RWA.LTD Ecosystem

In this public announcement, RWA.LTD systematically disclosed its four major ecological sectors for the first time. First, RWA.LTD | Mall (Winpoint Mall) was officially launched during the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, providing consumers with diverse brand rights driven by RWA Coin; current offerings include the CDAA (Chartered Digital Asset Analyst) Course, Matrix E-commerce Services, and more. Second, RWA.LTD | Exchange was fully launched in mid-March 2026 as a primary issuance and secondary trading market for consumer goods tokens, with plans to list 100 types of consumer goods tokens within the year to provide bidirectional exposure for brands and users. Third, RWA.LTD | Fund plans to collaborate with established VC funds to focus on brand token ecosystem construction and explore new paths for the synergistic development of consumer brands and on-chain capital. Fourth, RWA.LTD | Bot (rwaclaw.ai, rwabot.ai) has completed domain layout and is currently under development; it will provide consumers with real-time AI price comparisons, intelligent recommendations, and automated ordering tools to enhance decision-making efficiency and consumer experience.

RWA.LTD believes that the traditional consumer market has long suffered from information asymmetry, price opacity, and inactive membership systems, while the combination of blockchain and AI provides a new consumption model. By standardizing, digitizing, and placing consumer rights on-chain, consumers are no longer just end-buyers but can become active participants in the consumption network; brands are no longer limited to one-time interactions with consumers but can build stable, sustainable consumer relationships through on-chain tools.

Consumer RWA Alliance

At the Hong Kong Web3 Festival, the Consumer RWA Alliance, spearheaded by RWA.LTD, was inaugurated. The alliance aims to unite consumer brands, channel platforms, technology service providers, ecological partners, and cross-regional resource providers to jointly promote the co-construction of standards, ecological synergy, and scenario implementation for consumer goods RWA. The alliance members attending the unveiling ceremony included Dr. and Professor Lawrence Yu, Founder and Chairman of the Asia Pacific Economic Leaders’ Confederation; Dr. Wang Ping, President of the RWA Ecological International Federation and Chairman of the Asia Pacific M&A Fund; Dou Jun, Secretary General of the Hong Kong RWA Global Industry Alliance and Executive Secretary General of the Blockchain Professional Committee of the China Communications Industry Association (CCIA); Dr. Yu Jianing, Principal of Uweb Business School (Hong Kong) and Rotating Chairman of the Academic Committee of the Hong Kong Certified Digital Asset Analysts Association (HKCDAA); Dr. Jingle, Founder of Hong Kong Meta Strategy; Dr. Qiu Yueying, CEO of Winchain Technology; Tongjian Sun, CEO of INOVAI TECH K.K.; and Wen Hua, Director of the Australia & New Zealand Center of the Hong Kong RWA Global Industry Alliance, with RWA.LTD CEO Fu, Rao Tony serving as the Chairman. The establishment of the alliance marks an important step for consumer RWA moving from platform exploration to industry collaboration, signifying that the RWA narrative is extending from the relatively singular field of financial assets to the consumer industry which is more closely related to real life.

Industry insiders pointed out that the establishment of the Consumer RWA Alliance holds industry significance beyond platform business. On one hand, it helps break the market’s inherent impression of RWA as being “over-financialized” and encourages the outside world to re-recognize the application value of RWA as digital infrastructure in real consumption scenarios. On the other hand, it provides a new organizational framework for the Asian consumer market, making cross-regional brand cooperation, mutual recognition of consumer rights, and on-chain circulation mechanisms more operational. RWA.LTD stated that it hopes to promote the formation of a more diverse, open, and sustainable RWA world through the alliance mechanism, making RWA not just a synonym for asset securitization, but also a key driver for consumer innovation and industrial upgrading.

Regarding compliance issues of market concern, RWA.LTD provided a brief explanation in this announcement. Consumer goods tokens do not fall within the definition of “virtual assets” under Section 53ZRA of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (AMLO), as they are neither payment tokens nor governance tokens. Even if there is overlap in certain characteristics, the relevant tokens can ultimately be defined as “Limited Purpose Digital Tokens” under Section 53ZR of the AMLO, which are explicitly excluded from the scope of “virtual asset” in the AMLO. Based on this, RWA.LTD does not fall within the regulatory scope of the Virtual Asset Trading Platform (VATP) licensing regime. Meanwhile, the U.S. SEC’s previous No-Action Letter to the Fuse project, along with the definition of “Digital Tools” in the regulatory interpretation published on March 17, 2026, further supports the stance that consumer goods tokens are non-securities, non-commodities, and are not regulated under the virtual asset framework. RWA.LTD emphasized that the company consistently adheres to advancing product design and business development within a compliance framework and will continue to monitor regulatory dynamics in different jurisdictions.

The RWA.LTD team possesses a rich international background and overseas market experience, having long followed the development trends of the Web3 and RWA markets in Europe and the United States. The team observed early on that the Asian RWA market has long been concentrated on financial narratives with relatively monotonous scenarios, and platforms that truly integrate deeply with mass consumption and high-frequency lifestyle scenarios remain scarce. Consequently, the team began preparing the consumer goods RWA platform as early as 2024, hoping to take the lead in completing infrastructure, model verification, and resource integration before an industry consensus was formed.

RWA.LTD CEO Fu, Rao Tony pointed out that consumer goods RWA is currently one of the directions most likely to land and scale quickly. Compared to financial RWA, consumer goods RWA has a stronger efficient foundation in terms of compliance structure, user understanding, scenario adaptation, and promotion paths. Its core value lies in using blockchain technology to release liquidity that the consumer industry has long lacked, allowing consumer rights—which were originally fragmented, dormant, non-tradable, or difficult to circulate across regions—to achieve more efficient allocation and redistribution. Through this mechanism, the relationship between brands, platforms, and consumers will be redefined.

Fu, Rao Tony further stated that as the digitalization of the Asian consumer market continues to improve, the combination of consumer RWA and the real consumer industry is expected to release trillion-dollar economic potential in the future. For Hong Kong, this is not just an emerging Web3 track, but could become an important hub connecting international consumer networks with digital asset innovation. Hong Kong possesses unique advantages as an international financial center, an international trade center, and a highland for institutional innovation. If it can take the lead in forming scale synergy in the field of consumer RWA, it has the opportunity to occupy a leading position in the global wave of consumer asset digitalization.

In the future, RWA.LTD will continue to advance its layout around consumer goods RWA infrastructure construction, ecological cooperation expansion, alliance network improvement, and AI consumer tool research and development, exploring new on-chain paradigms for the consumer industry with more brands, institutions, and partners. As the Mall, Exchange, Fund, and Bot sectors gradually mature, RWA.LTD hopes to drive consumer RWA from concept to large-scale application, providing a more efficient, intelligent, and participatory new value network for the Asian and global consumer markets.

About RWA.LTD

RWA.LTD is positioned as the Asian consumer goods asset trading center, committed to enhancing consumption efficiency with AI, reconstructing consumer value distribution with Web3, and establishing cross-city and cross-country consumer alliance networks via tokens. The company focuses on the consumer goods RWA track, continuously promoting the digitalization of consumer rights, the circulation of consumer assets, and the synergy of the consumer ecosystem to explore the future consumption model of “Smarter Consumer”.

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SOURCE RWA.LTD

Technology

Fox ESS Ranks No. 1 Globally in Residential Energy Storage

Published

3 hours ago

April 24, 2026

WENZHOU, China, April 23, 2026 /CNW/ — Fox ESS, a global leader in renewable energy solutions, has been ranked No. 1 among residential energy storage providers worldwide for 2025, based on MWh shipments in S&P Global Energy’s Residential Energy Storage Market Tracker.

The report also places Fox ESS at No. 1 in Germany and the UK, highlighting the company’s momentum in key markets and expanding distribution footprint.

Compared with 2024, Fox ESS’s global market share rose 50% in 2025, reinforcing its position in a rapidly growing residential storage sector. The company has continued to scale internationally, with global headcount doubling from the end of 2024. As of April 2026, Fox ESS employs more than 5,000 people worldwide, and has added local support through new offices, including in Sydney, Australia.

“We’re thrilled for this remarkable achievement. It reflects our commitment to innovation and product quality, and to making clean, reliable energy practical for households around the world,” said Michael Zhu, CEO of Fox ESS. “We will continue pushing the boundaries to deliver solutions that help homes and businesses move toward energy independence.”

Notably, Fox ESS has launched the Champion’s Choice campaign globally, combining the endorsement of sports champions with recognition from prestigious organizations. With the first stop in Australia, the company signed Ian Thorpe, a five-time Olympic champion last December. The campaign underscores Fox ESS’s ambition to deliver better value for customers and partners.

Fox ESS is committed to building long-term trust with customers and partners. The company delivers reliable, high-quality energy storage systems engineered for consistent performance, supported by rigorous quality-control processes designed to help ensure every product meets the highest standards.

Fox ESS develops solutions that serve both installers and end users. With ongoing investment in R&D, the company stays ahead of evolving market needs, helping installers work more efficiently while enabling homeowners to move toward energy transition and reduce electricity costs.

With a team of more than 400 experts in R&D, Fox ESS continues to refine its product design for easier transportation, installation, and everyday use. The AI-powered FoxCloud app also makes energy management more intuitive, enabling users to monitor and control home energy consumption, manage smart devices, and track detailed generation and usage data in a single streamlined platform, delivering greater peace of mind.

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SOURCE Fox ESS