BEN KRITZ
THE World Bank (WB) created a bit of a stir this week by announcing it had reduced its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecasts for the Philippines. Due to a number of unanticipated challenges, the multinational lender said, it revised its forecast for 2019 downward from 6.5 to 6.4 percent and lowered its forecast for 2020 and 2021 from 6.6 to 6.5 percent respectively.