South East Asia

Microfinance in South Asia

Although relatively close geographically and with sizeable populations that benefit from microfinance, Myanmar and the Philippines are quite different in other respects.

The Philippines is a more open and developed country with higher GDP per capita than Myanmar, but with a large, low-income population. Myanmar has been a closed society for many years and has only recently opened up to the broader world, a development which allowed formal microfinance to become established.