MANILA – Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) governor Benjamin Diokno believes that achieving the government’s six to seven percent growth target for 2019 is “still doable” after a recovery in the third quarter.
As measured by gross domestic product (GDP), the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday reported a 6.2-percent domestic output in the third quarter this year. The output is higher than year-ago’s six percent and a turn-around from the deceleration to 5.5 percent in the previous quarter.
Average growth in the first three quarters stood at 5.8 percent.
In a statement, the central bank chief said the third-quarter growth “exceeds the consensus forecast which indicates catch-up plan is working.”
“The six-percent full year GDP growth target is a tall order, after a slower-than-expected first half, but still doable,” he said. “In any event, the Philippines growth performance this year is one of the fastest among relatively large economies, amid a slowing global economy.”
The consensus forecast for the third quarter is a six-percent growth.
Among the sectors, growth from July to September this year was driven by Services, which posted the highest expansion at 6.9 percent. This was followed by the Industry, 5.6 percent; and the Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing, 3.1 percent.
The government implemented a catch-up spending program focused on the infrastructure spending of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Transportation, to lift expenditures after GDP slowed in the first half of the year due to the delay in the approval of this year’s national budget, only signed into law last April 15.
Expenditures last September posted a double-digit growth of 39.1 percent year-on-year to P415.1 billion.
The end-September figure of P2.626 trillion was 2.14 percent short of the P2.684 trillion programmed for the nine-month period.
GDP growth in the first quarter this year slipped to 5.6 percent from quarter-ago’s 6.3 percent. It further slowed to 5.5 percent in the second quarter, bringing the first half output to 5.5 percent. (PNA)
