World Bank Updates Growth Forecasts for the Philippines

MANILA, Philippines, Dec. 21 -- The World Bank issued the following news release:

As part of its forecasting exercise, the World Bank has updated its growth projections for the Philippines to 6.4 percent in 2018 and 6.5 percent in 2019, to reflect recent economic trends.

These new forecast numbers are a slight revisions of the World Bank's growth projections of 6.5 percent for 2018 and 6.7 percent for 2019, released through the Philippines Economic Update in October this year.

"A strong, consistent delivery of the infrastructure investment agenda while sustaining improvements in health, education and social protection will be key to maintaining the robust and inclusive growth outlook of the Philippines," said Rong Qian, World Bank Senior Economist.

While persistent high inflation may temper private consumption growth in the fourth quarter of 2018, a moderation in inflation in following quarters is expected to boost consumer confidence and raise private consumption in 2019.

Also, the mid-term election in May is also expected to strengthen consumption by temporarily raising employment and disposable incomes in early 2019.

Investment growth however maybe be tempered in the first half of 2019 due to the possible reenactment of the first-quarter 2019 budget following a delay in the budget approval process. Moreover, global trade is expected to remain weak, thus dampening exports.

Nonetheless, the Philippines remains one of the fast-growing economies in the East Asia and the Pacific Region.