The global economic outlook has improved in the second half of 2023, supported primarily by the resilience of the US economy, however, macroeconomic uncertainties and restrictive monetary policy continue to drag the growth trajectory . As the banking crisis subsided, path of global economic recovery remained plausible. M&A activities across the Asia-Pacific region declined and reported the lowest number of deals in recent years.
APAC's M&A activity remained sluggish in the first nine months of 2023, with deal volumes falling by 22% Y-o-Y (aggregated US$536 billion) and APAC region's share of global M&A was 30% (lower than the Americas and EMEA). The overall growth was significantly hampered by a steady decline in deal volumes in India and Southeast Asia (both down by 57% Y-o-Y respectively), but Japan's improved deal volumes (up by 28% Y-o-Y) stood out as a bright spot.
Fragile sentiments continue to impact major economies in the near-term as lingering inflation and high borrowing costs will continue to keep global growth subdued. The slowdown in global recovery will impact M&A activities across various regions including APAC, making progress to the pre-COVID levels challenging
