Double-digit growth in manufacturing, services exports and in government spending likely pushed economic growth to hit the higher end of the Duterte administration’s 6-7 percent target for 2016, a ranking c official said on Wednesday.
Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran, also the DOF’s chief economist, said he expected gross domestic product (GDP) to have grown by 7 percent last year.
The government is scheduled to announce the fourth-quarter and full-year 2016 GDP performance today.
“Services exports were up 10.9 percent, government expenditures were up 12 percent in real terms, and whole-year manufacturing were up 13 percent” in 2016, Beltran said.
After President Duterte assumed office in July last year, the Cabinet-level, interagency Development Budget Coordination Committee cut the 2016 GDP growth target to 6-7 percent from the earlier goal of 6.8-7.8 percent set by the Aquino administration, citing that the new administration still had to adjust.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) earlier cut to 7 percent the third-quarter GDP growth figure from the previously announced 7.1 percent.
“The top three contributors to the revision were financial intermediation, real estate, renting and business activities, and agriculture and forestry,” the PSA said.
“Gross national income and net primary income from the rest of the world were likewise revised to 6.2 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively. These are lower than the corresponding preliminary growths of 6.3 percent and 2.5 percent,” the PSA added.
The government targets GDP growth of 6.5-7.5 percent this year before rising to 7-8 percent in 2018 until the end of Duterte’s term in 2022.