MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine government is revising its economic growth target for the rest of 2008, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said Tuesday as the country battles high inflation and slowing world growth.

But Teves did not indicate the likely outcome of the revision of targets for this year and 2009, which comes as experts predict higher Philippine borrowing costs after annual inflation hit a 14-year high above 11.0 percent in June.

The global downturn "will really hit us in 2008, especially during the second half," he told reporters, adding world economic conditions should improve next year.

Philippine economic growth eased to an annual rate of 5.2 percent in the three months to March after rising by 7.2 percent in 2007, which was the highest figure in decades.

Many Asian nations fear economic growth will slow due to surging inflation as food and fuel costs rocket amid a global boom in commodity prices. They also worry about the slowdown in the United States, the world's biggest economy.

A Philippine daily said the government would slightly widen the 2008 growth target to between 5.7-6.6 percent, from 5.7-6.5 percent. It said the 2009 target would become 6.1-7.0 percent, from 6.2-7.0 percent.

Meanwhile, President Gloria Arroyo said her cabinet was studying the country's foreign trade data, saying the Philippines should try to boost exports as import costs for oil and rice bite.

She said the exports could include "hard commodities such as primary products supplemented by soft commodities such as tourism and outsourced business processing."

Teves also dismissed calls by the opposition and the dominant Roman Catholic church to help Filipinos squeezed by high energy prices by abolishing a sales tax of 12.0 percent on petroleum products.

"The power to suspend the VAT (value added tax) on oil rests on Congress," he said, adding the proposal would lead to lost revenue of $1.6 billion.

The money would otherwise be used to help the poor cope with oil and food prices, he added.