New economic managers see 7% Q2 growth

Davao City: Election-related spending likely drove the Philippine economy to grow faster in the second quarter of 2016 compared with the first three months of the year, possibly above 7 percent, before slowing in the second half of the year, two of the incoming administration’s economic managers said on Monday.

Incoming Socioeconomic Planning and National Economic and Development Authority Director General Ernesto Pernia said on the sidelines of an economic forum in Davao that gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the April to June period was “likely above 7 percent,” while incoming Budget and Management Secretary Benjamin Diokno also said economic expansion in the three months to June could be higher than the 6.9 percent GDP growth posted in the first quarter of the year.