Furthermore, ASEAN integration opens up a bigger regional market. After all, the economic prospects of ASEAN as a whole have always been premised on its retail market. ASEAN has a base of over 600 million individuals in 10 jurisdictions whose collective GDP in 2012 amounted to USD2.27 trillion.
We also know that in many places outside the United States-particularly in Asia and in many oilexporting countries-households currently want to save more than businesses want to invest. At the same time, desired national savings in the United States are not sufficient to meet desired investment, although it is not certain that this situation will persist.