The local stock market dropped after the government reported a much lower economic growth rate for the second quarter of 2023.
As of 10:50 this morning, the PSEi was down 63.51 points or 0.97 percent at 6,466.94 with all sectors declining, led by Banks. There were 84 losers to 43 gainers with 43 unchanged.
The government reported that the Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) grew 4.3 percent in the second quarter of this year, much lower than consensus estimate of six percent.
The main drivers of the quarter’s GDP were Household Spending, which contributed 3.7 percentage points, and Net Exports which contributed 0.9 percentage points to growth; while a major drag was Government Spending which took away 1.3 percentage points from GDP.
Abacus Securities Corporation said GDP needs to grow 6.6 percent in the second half of 2023 to reach government target of six percent to seven percent for the year.