Virus restrictions threaten Asia economic recovery in 2021: ADB

Coronavirus-ravaged economies across the Asia Pacific will make a "swoosh-shaped" recovery next year, the Asian Development Bank forecast Tuesday, but it warned that further restrictions to combat the contagion could derail the region's return to growth.

Developing Asia -- stretching from the Cook Islands in the Pacific to Kazakhstan in Central Asia -- is expected to contract in 2020 for the first time in nearly six decades, throwing tens of millions of people into poverty, the Philippines-based lender said.