Economy of Asia

The economy of Asia comprises more than 4.2 billion people (60% of the world population) living in 46 different states. Six further states lie partly in Asia, but are considered to belong to another region economically and politically. Asia is the world's fastest growing economic region. China is the largest economy in Asia and the second largest economy in the world.

As in all world regions, the wealth of Asia differs widely between, and within, states. This is due to its vast size, meaning a huge range of differing cultures, environments, historical ties and government systems. The largest economies in Asia in terms of both nominal and PPP gross domestic product (GDP) are the China, Japan, Russia, India, South Korea, Indonesia, and Turkey.

Wealth (if measured by GDP per capita) is mostly concentrated in east Asian territories and are listed as followed Hong Kong, Macau, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Brunei, and Taiwan, as well in oil rich countries as listed as followed Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Iran, Kuwait, and Oman with a notable exception being in Israel which lies in the territory of Asia despite being not counted as such is also a very considerably wealthy nation. Turkey is also a very notably wealthy country. Asia, with the exception of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, is currently undergoing rapid growth and industrialization spearheaded by China and India - the two fastest growing major economies in the world. While east Asian and southeast Asian countries generally rely on manufacturing and trade for growth, countries in the Middle East depend more on the production of commodities, principally oil, for economic growth. Over the years, with rapid economic growth and large trade surplus with the rest of the world, Asia has accumulated over US$4 trillion of foreign exchange reserves - more than half of the world's total.