The Philippine economic growth accelerated in the third quarter this year, which coincided with the first three months of the Marcos administration, despite surging consumer prices, depreciating peso and heightened uncertainty about the global economy.
In a briefing on Thursday, Nov. 10, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said the economy, as measured by the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), jumped 7.6 percent in July to September this year.
The third-quarter expansion, the nation’s sixth consecutive quarter of at least seven percent growth, outpaced the 7.5 percent seen in the previous quarter and the 7.0 percent in the same period last year.
It also exceeded the median analysts forecast of 6.3 percent, and placed the Philippines as second highest in growth in Southeast Asia, behind Vietnam’s 13.7 percent and in front of Indonesia’s 5.7 percent.
In the quarter ending September, growth was driven by consumer spending and investments, as more people visit restaurants and hotels and engage in recreational activities within the country.
On the production side, all sectors sustained their expansion, mainly driven by the growth in the services and industry sectors. It also noted the acceleration in the agriculture sector compared to the same period last year.
The third-quarter growth brought the country’s GDP average in the first nine-months to 7.77 percent, well above the 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent full-year target.
Balisacan said the robust economy in the first quarter of President Marcos' administration signified strong confidence in the chief executive's leadership.
“Remember this, the July to September, is already the first quarter of the administration and way before the quarters, or even before that, there was already clear expectation that President Marcos would become the president,” Balisacan told reporters.
“Clearly, the fact that the economy continued to perform and even accelerated in the last quarter suggests a good deal of confidence in the administration we are quite pleased to see that,” he added.
Balisacan added that higher energy costs that fueled inflation combined with weak local currency and tightened financial conditions also failed to weigh down the country’s economic growth.
“Despite all this, this difficult times, the economy managed to grow that strongly,” Balisacan said. “I was even prepared to see a reduction in growth in the third-quarter, but I think there’s much more resiliency there.”
Asked if the robust growth is sustainable, Balisacan said “I believe so.”
“With this, we are on track to achieving the government’s growth target... Given the latest GDP outturn, our economy needs to grow by 3.3 to 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter,” Balisacan said.
Meanwhile, Budget Secretary Amenah F. Pangandaman said the robust economic performance, which jumpstarted the Marcos administration, was due to continuing efforts to push and open the economy, and increased mobility.
"The 7.6 percent growth shows that socioeconomic objectives can be achieved amid a high inflationary environment, tightening monetary policy stance and even the depreciating peso against the US dollar,” Pangandaman said.
Inflation has been trending above six percent levels with 6.4 percent in July, 6.3 percent in August, and 6.9 percent in September.
Without higher inflation, Balisacan said growth could have been much faster than 7.6 percent.