World Bank cuts PH growth forecast
Credit to Author: ANNA LEAH E. GONZALES| Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2019 02:39:29 +0000
THE World Bank downgraded anew its 2019 Philippine growth forecast because of a slowdown in public investments, weakening global economic growth, and effects of the trade tension between the United States and China.
In its Philippines Economic Update released on Thursday, World Bank cut the country’s economic growth projection to 5.8 percent this year from the previous 6.4 percent.
“The downward revision considered the impact of the recent global development in the Philippine economy, as well as the sharp slowdown in investments growth in the first half of 2019,” said World Bank Senior Economist Rong Qian.
“While the government is trying to accelerate public investment to compensate for the underspending in the first half of the year, there’s still implementation challenges that might prevent a full catch up,” she added.
World Bank’s forecast fell below the 6.0 to 7.0 percent downwardly adjusted to the economic growth target of the government.
Qian said however that economic growth was expected to recover to 6.1 percent in 2020 and 6.2 percent in 2021.
“Economic growth is expected to surpass 6 percent in the next two years as the impact of the budget delay dissipate assuming timely passage of the new budget,” said Qian.