MANILA — The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to accelerate in the second half of the year, ING Bank Country Head Hans Sicat said.
In a briefing by the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines Tuesday, the former president and chief executive of the Philippine Stock Exchange said various issues that held back economic growth last year will continue to do so for the first part of 2019.
“We think it’s going to act as headwinds for the economy for the first quarter of 2019,” Sicat said.
Sicat mentioned that GDP growth in the first quarter of 2019 is forecasted to be lower than 6 percent.
“We think as inflation comes down the rest of this year, and as issues perhaps election spending, this is picking up much later on, and hopefully the passage of the budget in Q1 is done, you now have a lot of input into the economy such as the second half of the economy will grow a lot faster than the first half,” the Dutch bank executive said.
Sicat added that infrastructure expenditure of the government will have multiplier effects, particularly bringing growth not only in the developed cities in the region but also in rural areas.
For the full year of 2019, Sicat said the country’s GDP is likely to grow by 6.2 percent.
