• Bangladesh
• Bhutan
• India
• Maldives
• Nepal
• Sri Lanka

Growth in South Asia is expected to slow in 2026 due to disruptions in global energy markets. Despite this slowdown, South Asia continues to be the world’s fastest-growing region, driven by India’s strong performance.

But the region’s track record of strong growth masks the region’s significant jobs challenge. Only 59 percent of working-age people are employed—well below peer regions—driven by one of the world’s lowest female labor force participation rates at 32%. Widespread informality also constrains job creation: the formal sector employs only around 10% of the workforce, limiting the tax base and constraining public investments, leaving workers without social protection, and preventing firms from accessing credit.

South Asia is also highly vulnerable to extreme increases in temperature and weather-related events. Since 2010, natural disasters have affected an average of about 67 million people each year. Nearly 48 percent of the population lives in hotspots, where unpredictable rainfall and rising temperatures are reducing crop yields and exacerbating water scarcity.  The region also suffers from extreme air pollution, which leads to severe health impacts and economic costs.

We are putting the World Bank Group’s jobs strategy to work across South Asia. This strategy is built around three mutually reinforcing pillars—physical and human infrastructure, a business-ready policy environment, and private capital at scale.

We are making foundational investments in climate-resilient infrastructure like clean water, transport and energy, and in human capital, including health, education and skills training, to help create the conditions for firms to grow and jobs to follow.  We are helping countries to create a business-enabling policy environment so that the private sector can drive job creation. We are also helping countries to mobilize private capital by using financing, equity, and guarantees to bring in the level of investment that the public sector cannot provide on its own.