Off the wire
• New Zealand to press for SMEs opportunities on Asia-Pacific trade agenda  • Avengers smoke China box office competition  • Gatlin's "fine" with Beijing meet organizers  • Emaar to float Egypt unit on Cairo exchange  • Urgent: Iran not to accept "excessive demands" in nuclear talks: supreme leader  • China Hushen 300 index futures close higher Wednesday  • China treasury bond futures close higher Wednesday  • 1st LD-Writethru: China vows massive investment to improve Internet services  • China allocates 124 bln yuan to fund affordable housing program  • WB offers 12 bln USD loans to Indonesia  
You are here: 　 Home

Philippine gov't remains confident in reaching economy growth target this year

Xinhua, May 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

Philippine government is confident that the country's economy could still reach the 7 to 8 percent growth target for this year, Communications secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said Wednesday.

Coloma said state think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) opted t make a conservative forecast when it said that the country is only likely to grow by 6.8 percent this year or lower than the government's growth targets.

"While PIDS has opted to adopt a conservative stance, we remain upbeat about the attainability of a 7 to 8 percent growth in accordance with the PDP (Philippine Development Plan) targets. We could sense the high level of business confidence coupled with the continuing strength of the country's macro-economic fundamentals," he said.

PIDS OIC-vice president Adoracion Navarro, during the forum Philippine Business and Economic Outlook for 2015 and Beyond, said the Philippine economy faces several hurdles to growth this year like a decline in revenues in oil importation and the Bureau of Internal Revenue's collections following the implementation of the tax exemption on de minimis benefits and higher tax exemption ceiling on 13th month pay. Endi