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rfmcdonaldFrom John Drabble's economic history of Malaysia, hosted at eh.net, a chart comparing economic growth in selected South and East Asian countries over 1900-1990, including Malaysia and Indonesia.
GDP per Capita: Selected Asian Countries, 1900-1990
The future Malaysia's economic lead over the rest of Southeast Asia is traced by Drabble to resources booms, with technology improving the efficiency of tin mining and growing international demand for the rubber promoting growth in the agricultural sector. The other countries in the sample have experienced varying fates. Burma, which until the Second World War seems to have closely followed Thailand, has since fallen far behind; South Korea and, especially, Japan have leapt far ahead of the pack; Indonesia, after recording annual rates of economic growth per capita not much above 1% over 1950-1973, eventually surpassed the Philippines.
On the topic of the Indonesia-Malaysia comparison, economic growth in Indonesia and Malaysia averaged 3.5 and 6.5% per annum over 1960-1969, 7.9 and 8.0% over 1971-1980 and 5.2 and 5.4% over 1981-1989. According to Globalis, Malaysia consistently experienced higher rates of population growth than Indonesia, undermining Malaysia's relative advantage in per capita terms. As documented by the Penn World Tables, the 1997 economic crash revealed the fragility of the Indonesian economy and overturned its growth advantage: Whereas Malaysia regained its 1997 position in GDP per capita relative to the United States, Indonesia still hadn't pulled out of its relative decline by 2004.
GDP per Capita: Selected Asian Countries, 1900-1990
(in 1985 international dollars)
| 1900 | 1929 | 1950 | 1973 | 1990 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Malaya/Malaysia1 |
6002 | 1910 | 1828 | 3088 | 5775 |
| Singapore | - | - | 22763 | 5372 | 14441 |
| Burma | 523 | 651 | 304 | 446 | 562 |
| Thailand | 594 | 623 | 652 | 1559 | 3694 |
| Indonesia | 617 | 1009 | 727 | 1253 | 2118 |
| Philippines | 735 | 1106 | 943 | 1629 | 1934 |
| South Korea | 568 | 945 | 565 | 1782 | 6012 |
| Japan | 724 | 1192 | 1208 | 7133 | 13197 |
Notes: Malaya to 19631; Guesstimate2; 19603
Source: van der Eng (1994).
The future Malaysia's economic lead over the rest of Southeast Asia is traced by Drabble to resources booms, with technology improving the efficiency of tin mining and growing international demand for the rubber promoting growth in the agricultural sector. The other countries in the sample have experienced varying fates. Burma, which until the Second World War seems to have closely followed Thailand, has since fallen far behind; South Korea and, especially, Japan have leapt far ahead of the pack; Indonesia, after recording annual rates of economic growth per capita not much above 1% over 1950-1973, eventually surpassed the Philippines.
On the topic of the Indonesia-Malaysia comparison, economic growth in Indonesia and Malaysia averaged 3.5 and 6.5% per annum over 1960-1969, 7.9 and 8.0% over 1971-1980 and 5.2 and 5.4% over 1981-1989. According to Globalis, Malaysia consistently experienced higher rates of population growth than Indonesia, undermining Malaysia's relative advantage in per capita terms. As documented by the Penn World Tables, the 1997 economic crash revealed the fragility of the Indonesian economy and overturned its growth advantage: Whereas Malaysia regained its 1997 position in GDP per capita relative to the United States, Indonesia still hadn't pulled out of its relative decline by 2004.
