The Philippine economy grew the most in a year in the fourth quarter as the government stepped up spending and investment, but the full year 2015 growth was short of the government’s target.
Gross domestic product advanced 6.3 percent in the final quarter of 2015, faster than the revised 6.1 percent growth seen a quarter ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Thursday.
Economists had forecast the annual rate to ease to 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter.
The unexpected acceleration in economic growth was driven by a 7.4 percent expansion by the services sector. The sector had seen a 5.6 percent expansion in the previous year.
Meanwhile, industrial growth decelerated to 6.8 percent from 9.1 percent a year ago. The agriculture sector contracted 0.3 percent, reversing a 4.2 percent rise in the same period of last year.
The expenditure-side breakdown of GDP showed that government spending and investment provided a strong boost to annual growth.
Government expenditure surged 17.4 percent and investment climbed 13.5 percent. At the same time, household spending logged an increase of 6.4 percent.
Exports rose 7.1 percent, while imports saw a faster growth of 13.3 percent in the fourth quarter.
Daniel Martin, a senior Asia economist at Capital Economics, said he thinks concerns about the world economy are overdone and, if anything, expect a pick-up in global growth to lend more support to the Philippines’ exports in 2016.
Even if the assessment on external demand goes wrong, the domestic economy is likely to continue performing well, he noted.
For 2015 as a whole, the economy grew 5.8 percent, slower than the 6.1 percent growth in 2014, largely due to the weak start to the year. The year’s growth also trailed the government target of 7-8 percent.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com