Philippine economic growth is likely to remain positive in the first quarter of 2020, but the full-year growth figure could be worse than what the government projected, the Department of Finance (DoF) said on Wednesday. The Finance chief’s growth expectation is consistent with the 1.8-percent average estimate of analysts polled by The Manila Times. The average figure is lower than the 6.5-percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth expansion in the fourth quarter of 2019. For the second quarter, Dominguez expects growth to become “quite bad.”GDP expansion for full-2020 “might be” lower than the government’s revised growth assumption of -0.8 to zero percent for 2020, he said. On inflation, FMIC & UA&P said supply constraints could keep it from falling below 2 percent in the three months ending June.

Source: Manila Times May 06, 2020 17:37 UTC