“There appears to be no indication that these issues are having a particularly adverse impact on the economy,” Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said Thursday, shortly after the federal government announced first-quarter growth of 5.7 percent, below 5 ,9. percent increase was observed within the Bloomberg study.
“We are not turning against China,” Balisacan said. “I don’t think there is any attempt at all to put Chinese investors in the Philippines at a disadvantage, especially private investors, just because we have these problems in the West Philippine Sea,” he added, using the Manila term for the South China Sea.
Gross domestic product rose 5.7 percent within the three months through March from a 12 months earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority said on Thursday.
While the most recent data shows the resilience of the Philippine economy, which grew the fastest in Southeast Asia last 12 months, there are more signs that rates of interest at a 17-year high and protracted inflation are weighing on domestic activity. Consumption, which accounts for greater than 70 percent of production, grew 4.6 percent within the last quarter, the slowest growth because the pandemic.
Last quarter’s GDP would likely persuade the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which has carried out its most aggressive monetary tightening in 20 years to tamp down inflation, to maintain its key rate of interest at 6.5 percent at its meeting next week.
Still, Balisacan was upbeat on growth prospects, forecasting faster expansion in the present quarter, putting the Philippines on target to satisfy its 2024 growth goal unless the federal government’s successes in fighting inflation could be reversed.
