Philippines - Philippine economy slows to 3.2% in third quarter

The Philippines said its economic growth slowed to 3.2 percent in July-September, weighed by the US and European debt crises, bad weather, high fuel costs and low infrastructure spending.

The year on year figure is well off the "7.3 percent honeymoon growth" in the same period last year and was the third straight quarter of easing, said Romulo Virola, head of the National Statistical Coordination Board.

"The so called death spiral of debt that hounds our trading partners, the uninvigorating ... government spending, and the decline in fishing due to unfavourable weather and the high cost of fuel contributed to this relatively lethargic growth," Virola said in a statement on Monday.

The third quarter figure was only slightly higher than the revised gross domestic product of 3.1 percent for the second quarter.

The construction sector also suffered from the delayed implementation of President Benigno Aquino's "public-private partnership programme" while income from exports were pummelled by a slowdown in the global economy.

Aquino's programme had been billed as the cornerstone of his economic agenda, under which he had promised to bid out big-ticket infrastructure projects to private investors in partnership with the government.

The spending spree was designed to generate millions of jobs and induce local economic growth, but more than a year later none of his planned major projects have started.

Virola said that for the January-September period, the economy grew 3.6 percent, which he said was "quite a distance even from the lower end of the whole year target of 4.5 percent".

AFP

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