(Bloomberg) -- The Philippine economy grew more than 6 percent for a ninth consecutive quarter, cementing its position as one of the fastest-expanding in the world.
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Big Picture
The Philippines is emerging as one of this decade's economic stars with the World Bank predicting growth of more than 6 percent until 2019, underpinned by an ambitious infrastructure building program and a young and growing population. President Rodrigo Duterte has secured loans from China and Japan to help finance $180 billion of spending on projects such as the capital's first subway and a network of railways and highways across the archipelago.
More than $50 billion of remittances and outsourcing revenue a year is helping support consumer spending, and luring retailers such as home furnishing giant Ikea. The central bank has so far kept interest rates at a record low, bolstering spending, but may be persuaded to tighten policy next year as currency weakness adds to pressure on inflation. The peso has dropped to an 11-year low this year and is the worst performing unit in Asia.
Other Details
- Consumer spending, which makes up about 70 percent of GDP, gained 4.5 percent from a year earlier
- Government spending rose 8.3 percent
- Capital formation investment increased 6.6 percent
--With assistance from Clarissa Batino and Ditas Lopez
To contact the reporters on this story: Cecilia Yap in Manila at cyap19@bloomberg.net, Siegfrid Alegado in Manila at aalegado1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Nasreen Seria at nseria@bloomberg.net, Karl Lester M. Yap
©2017 Bloomberg L.P.
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