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World Bank upgrades growth projections for Philippines for 2016-2018

Xinhua, December 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The World Bank announced on Thursday that it has upgraded its economic outlook for the Philippines for 2016-2018 as part of its quarterly forecast exercise, considering recent trends.

The bank projects the Philippine economy to grow at 6.8 percent in 2016, compared with the 6.4 percent forecast released in October this year.

In a statement, the bank said that growth in the third quarter of 2016 was higher than expected with accelerating investment and private consumption growth.

"This continued the strong growth performance of the Philippine economy in the first half of 2016 which was driven by the government's pre-election stimulus," the bank said.

Birgit Hansl, World Bank lead economist for the Philippines, said "Recent economic trends illustrate the high confidence among investors and consumers, and provide the foundation for a more optimistic outlook for the remainder of 2016 and for 2017."

"The economy's strong performance in October and November, and continued policy commitment to an increase in public infrastructure spending are expected to carry the economy's growth momentum over to 2017-2018," Hansl said.

The bank also revised upwards its growth projection for the Philippine economy in 2017 to 6.9 percent, compared with its October forecast of 6.2 percent. In 2018, it projected the economy to expand at 7.0 percent.

"Growth in capital investment is expected to remain in the Philippine economy's primary growth engine," the statement read.

Despite an expected increase in interest rates in 2017, the bank said that monetary policy is expected to remain supportive of growth, resulting in continued expansion in credit.

It said the implementation of large infrastructure investments is projected to lead to significant spillover effects into consumption growth next year. "Accompanied by robust credit growth to households and healthy remittances, this is expected to fuel consumption," it added.

As the global economy is slowly adjusting, with the growth momentum shifting away from advanced economies back towards emerging markets and developing economies, the bank said the Philippine exports are expected to grow in 2017 at a similar rate as in 2015-2016. Endit