The writer is chair of Rockefeller International“Resilience” is one of the buzzwords of the year. It’s used widely to describe the US economy, which continues to stave off recession and lift global growth, despite the sharpest interest rate rises in decades. But there is a more surprising tale of fortitude unfolding in the developing world.

Among the 25 largest emerging economies, three-quarters of those reporting data have beaten growth forecasts this year — some, including India and Brazil, by a wide margin. Forecasts for global growth in 2023 are rising and most of that uplift is coming from emerging economies.

Few analysts saw this revival coming. They expected emerging economies to be especially vulnerable to rising rates and that perception still rules, based on the weaknesses of China, weighed down by its heavy debts, and of a few smaller countries such as Ghana or Bolivia. But this picture excludes big developing nations outside China, from India to Mexico, which account for half the emerging world by economic output and more than half by population.