GDP per head: $4,260 (PPP: $12,840)

Inflation: 3.2%

Budget Balance (% GDP): - 6.0

Population: 269.8m

The president, Joko Widodo (known as Jokowi), enjoys strong public support but has no
party of his own, so must offer compromises on his policy programme to maintain
political elbow-room. He is backed in the legislature by the Democratic Party of Struggle
and Golkar party and has representatives of six parties in his cabinet. As a result,
stability will take precedence over reform, but initiatives in job creation and
infrastructure investment will make progress. Economic growth stalled under covid-19,
which surged late in 2020, but will rebound strongly as exports and domestic demand
recover.

Japan

GDP growth: 1.7%

GDP per head: $39,950 (PPP: $42,060)

Inflation: 0.5%

Budget Balance (% GDP): - 8.7

Population: 126.1m

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) elected Suga Yoshihide as the party’s
president, and hence prime minister, in late 2020, after the resignation for health
reasons of Abe Shinzo, Japan’s longest-serving prime minister. Mr Suga will maintain his
predecessor’s approach towards revitalising the economy. A patchy pandemic response
has eroded the government’s popularity, but the LDP and its legislative partner,