World Bank cuts Philippine economic growth forecasts
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The World Bank yesterday cut its economic growth projections for the Philippines due to lower government spending and lingering impacts of a major typhoon last year.
The Philippine economy is now projected to grow 6.4 per cent in 2014 and 6.7 per cent in 2015, down from previous forecasts of 6.6 per cent this year and 6.9 per cent next year, World Bank country director Motoo Konishi said.
“This projected growth remains one of the fastest in the East Asia region, second only to China among the major economies,” he said in a statement. The bank said the revision was due to the “slow start of the economy in the first quarter of 2014 given the effects of Typhoon Haiyan, lower government spending in the second quarter, and monetary policy tightening in the first seven months of the year”.
Haiyan slammed into the eastern Philippines on November 8, killing more than 6,200 people and displacing over 4 million people.
