Southeast Asia is sitting pretty, with economies across the region poised to carry better-than-expected growth performances into 2018, putting them in a stronger position to withstand rising global interest rates. The Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand are all posting their fastest economic growth rates in years, while Singapore is set to keep up that streak in data released Thursday. All four economies are projected to slow into the final three months of the year while retaining impressive 2017 growth figures and keeping pace into next year, according to Bloomberg survey data. The region is on a solid footing as the Federal Reserve leads global central banks in tightening monetary policy, threatening to send investment flowing out of emerging markets in a replay of the “taper tantrum” of 2013. For Southeast Asia’s central banks, the trade rebound brings additional healing for export-reliant economies, and along with cleaner balance sheets and favorable inflation goals, gives policy makers room to breathe. “The exports picture has been very strong this year, and that’s driven a lot of the upside surprise that you’ve seen across the region,” said Michael Wan, an economist at Credit Suisse Group AG in Singapore.  “It’s not like they’re rushed to increase that pace of rate increases,” Wan said of regional central banks. “We think it’s slow and steady.” Despite the specter of protectionism and trade deals thrown for a whirl amid a U.S. policy revamp, global trade has kept up a healthy pace this year. It should remain so in 2018, Gabriel Sterne, global head of macro research at Oxford Economics Ltd. in London, said in a Nov. 21 email. Oxford’s “China Factor” index—a three-month leading indicator that has a correlation of more than 80 percent with the year-on-year pace of global trade—shows that stable demand in the world’s No. 2 economy should sustain this growth engine. Solid demand for exports has kept factories humming in Thailand, where a 4.3 percent jump in manufacturing contributed to a third-quarter boom in gross domestic product of the same pace, the strongest in more than four years, according to government figures released Monday. A rise in international visitors and a brighter outlook for consumer spending as the mourning period closes for King Bhumibol Adulyadej are set to sustain growth into next year. Tax Cuts The upbeat data out of Thailand followed news last week that Malaysia’s manufacturing sector, too, helped buoy a faster-than-expected, 6.2 percent third-quarter growth rate that was the best in more than three years. Export recovery has pushed Prime Minister Najib Razak to raise his own growth forecasts, while also announcing measures to spur consumption, including tax cuts, in his budget speech last month. The Philippines might be the fairest of them all, having achieved a 6.9 percent year-over-year growth pace in the three months ending in September, primarily on government spending and investment. That surge matches the second-fastest pace since 2013 and marks the ninth straight quarter of growth above 6 percent. The growth in Southeast Asia mirrors what Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sees as an outperformance of emerging markets in 2018. “Current account deficits have decreased, inflation has moved towards targets, and the pace of debt accumulation has ticked down outside of China,” combined with an upturn in global trade, economists led by Charles Himmelberg said in a Nov. 16 note to clients. Policy Tightening? Like counterparts in the wider Asian region, central banks in Southeast Asia have been slow to follow the Fed in raising interest rates in this cycle compared with prior cycles, but several are ready to do so within the next year, according to Rob Subbaraman, chief economist for Asia at Nomura Holdings Inc. Bank Negara Malaysia may move as early as January, while the Philippines is forecast to tighten in the second half of 2018, he said in a note earlier this month. Read More: Malaysia Central Bank Says Any Policy Move Is ‘Normalization’ The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which conducts policy through currency levers rather than interest rates, gave itself more flexibility to tighten policy at upcoming bi-annual meetings by sticking to its neutral stance in October, but refraining to re-commit to that position for an “extended period.” That was before growth was seen heating up even more, with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong saying on Nov. 19 the economy could expand more than 3 percent this year.  The government will probably upgrade its third-quarter year-on-year growth number this week to 5.1 percent from a previously reported 4.6 percent, according to DBS Group Holdings Ltd. “Stronger-than-expected manufacturing growth and a possible upward adjustment to the services growth are the two key factors underpinning this upgrade,” Irvin Seah, an economist at DBS in Singapore, said in a note.