Asia entered the mid-1990s as the world’s largest demographic centre, accounting for nearly 60% of the global population, but with a significantly smaller share of global GDP and merchandise exports. Over the following three decades, the region’s economic and trade weight expanded sharply as industrialisation, manufacturing expansion and deepening supply-chain integration transformed Asia’s position in the global economy.

Asia’s share of global GDP increased from 30% in 1995 to 35% in 2025, while its share of global merchandise exports rose from 28% to 37% over the same period. In absolute terms, Asia’s GDP expanded from USD 9.4 trillion to USD 41 trillion, while merchandise exports increased from USD 1.4 trillion to USD 9.8 trillion. Major turning points that shaped this transformation included the Asian Financial Crisis, China’s WTO accession in 2001, the rise of regional supply chains during the 2010s and the region’s strengthening position in advanced manufacturing sectors during the 2020s.

These trends reflect a historic rebalancing of the global economy toward Asia, as the region evolved from a predominantly demographic centre into one of the world’s primary hubs of manufacturing, trade, industrial production and economic growth.