Philippine economic growth slows to 3.4%

SLOW ECONOMY. NSCB data shows that the Philippines’ economic growth for the second quarter slowed down to 3.4 percent.

MANILA, Philippines – Economic growth in the Philippines slowed to an annual pace of 3.4 percent in the April-June quarter, well below the government’s target, official data showed on Wednesday.
The government blamed the eurozone crisis and the economic problems of the country’s other main trading partners for the disappointing growth rate, which was far below the 8.9 percent posted in the second quarter of last year.
In a further blow, the National Statistical Coordination Board said growth for the year’s first quarter had been downgraded to 4.6 percent year-on-year from the 4.9 percent it announced originally.
The government had been projecting 4.5-5.5 percent growth in the second quarter of 2011, while economists surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires had forecast an average of 4.3 percent.
On a somewhat brighter note, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. said that the Philippines’ second-quarter growth is faster than that of Thailand’s 2.6 percent and Singapore’s 0.9 percent although slower than Malaysia’s 4 percent, Vietnam’s 5.7 percent, and Indonesia’s 6.5 percent. Paderanga did mention that China posted 9.5 percent growth.

The Philippine economy’s second-quarter growth came from agriculture, manufacturing, and the “ever-resilient” services sector (on the supply side), said Romulo A. Virola, secretary-general of the National Statistical Coordination Board. The European debt crisis and the fragile recovery of trading partners, however, caused slowdowns in other sectors.

Sugarcane, palay, and corn were the best performers in agriculture.

Financial intermediation, real estate, renting, and business activities, and “other subsectors” pushed growth in the services sector.—With Riza T. Olchondra,
Philippine Daily Inquirer