2017.11.1601:25:00UTC+00Philippine GDP Growth Accelerates In Q3

The Philippine economy expanded at a faster pace on government spending and foreign demand in the third quarter.

Gross domestic product grew 6.9 percent year-on-year, following a revised 6.7 percent expansion seen a quarter ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority said. In the same period of 2016, GDP advanced 7.1 percent.

Economists had forecast the rate to rise moderately to 6.6 percent from the second quarter's initially estimated 6.5 percent.

Meanwhile, quarter-on-quarter growth eased to 1.3 percent from the previous quarter's 2.0 percent. This was also weaker than the expected 1.6 percent.

On the production side, industry logged the fastest annual growth of 7.5 percent, followed by the 7.1 percent expansion registered by services. Meanwhile, growth in farm sector eased to 2.5 percent from 3 percent.

The expenditure-side breakdown of GDP showed that growth in household expenditure eased to 4.5 percent from 7.2 percent in the same period of 2016.

Meanwhile, government spending grew at a faster pace of 8.3 percent after rising 3.1 percent in the previous year.

Likewise, exports of goods expanded notably by 17.4 percent versus 8.1 percent recorded the previous year and shipment of services growth accelerated to 16.0 percent from 14.0 percent.

Total imports of goods climbed 14.4 percent, faster than the 14.1 percent posted in 2016. Similarly, imports of services growth accelerated to 11.8 percent from 9.8 percent seen in the same period in 2016.

Investments in capital formation for durable equipment grew by 8.3 percent.

Despite an acceleration in growth, the economy is set to slow next year, Alex Holmes and Krystal Tan, economists at Capital Economics, said. Although exports and government spending are likely to remain supportive, private investment looks set to weaken, they added.