By Joann Villanueva/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Philippine monetary officials are now seeing a possible 6 percent output for the domestic economy in the second quarter of 2019, faster than the 5.6 percent in the first three months of this year.
“We are looking at about 6 percent,” Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo told journalists after the 2019 pre-SONA economic and infrastructure forum held at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) Monday.
Consumption expenditure is expected to be high in the second quarter due to deceleration of inflation rate after peaking at 6.7 percent in September and October last year.
“With low inflation and low interest rates, private investments will also be an important driver of economic growth,” Guinigundo said.
The full year outlook for growth, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), is also around 6 percent, he said.
The BSP official explained that growth in the second half of the year is normally high, thus, alongside the government’s catch up spending plan, this should counter the weak output in the first half of the year.
“We should catch up in the same way that the national government is putting up a catch-up program so that the tight situation in first (and) second quarters can be addressed by the third and the fourth quarters,” he said.
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