In a report on Thursday night, Alex Holmes, Capital Economics economist for Asia, said that while the macroeconomic research firm was expecting a slowdown in growth in the first quarter, the second quarter figure might be worse. “Next Thursday’s Q1 (first quarter) GDP (gross domestic product) figures for the Philippines are likely to show that the economy grew at its slowest rate in over 10 years last quarter. The Philippine Statistics Authority will release official GDP growth data for January to March on May 7. While lockdown restrictions have been eased in parts of Luzon recently, most of the island, including…Metro Manila, will remain under lockdown until at least May 15,” he added. “Overall, we expect a very severe contraction in GDP of around 13.5 percent year-on-year in the second quarter,” he said.

Source: Manila Times May 01, 2020 17:03 UTC