THE PHILIPPINE Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday, January 28, reported a downward revision of the economy’s third-quarter 2025 growth output to 3.9 percent from the preliminary 4 percent estimate.
The PSA said the major contributors to the downward revision were electricity, steam, water and waste management, from 0.6 percent to -0.6 percent; real estate and ownership of dwellings, from 4.7 percent to 4.0 percent; and accommodation and food service activities, from 5.7 percent to 4.8 percent.
“Downward revisions were also observed in the third quarter of 2025 in the Gross National Income from 5.6 percent to 5.4 percent, and the Net Primary Income form the Rest of the World, from 16.9 percent to 16.2 percent,” it added.
Changes in the preliminary estimates on the gross domestic product (GDP)-related figures are announced a day before the PSA releases the report for the succeeding quarter.
The government’s 2025 growth target has been revised to a range between 4.8 to 5 percent.
Jonathan Ravelas, senior adviser at Reyes Tacandong & Co, said the changes will not affect his growth forecasts for the last quarter and full year 2025.
Ravelas projects fourth-quarter growth of 4.7 percent and full-year growth of 5.3 percent.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist Michael Ricafort, for his part, said he projects fourth quarter 2025 growth at 4.8 percent and full-year growth 4.9 percent.
For this year, he forecasts the domestic economy to expand between 5.3 to 5.8 percent, within the downwardly revised government target of between 5-6 percent.
“Catch up government spending plan starting 1Q 2026 to make up for the underspending in 3Q 2026 based on anti-corruption measures and other reforms to further improve governance would improve investor confidence/sentiment and help boost economic/GDP growth,” Ricafort told the Philippine News Agency.
He said a catch-up spending plan is necessary, noting that government spending, a major growth driver, also weighed on gross GDP in the latter part of 2026.
“Thus, if anti-corruption measures and other related priority reforms that further level up governance standards would be taken seriously, these would be the missing and remaining important catalyst that would help improve investor confidence/sentiment that, in turn, would also lead to more investments, both foreign and local, into the country, create more jobs/employment and other business/economic activities, as well as support further gains in the local financial markets,” Ricafort said. (PNA)
