The country’s economic growth for the first quater of 2015 slowed down to a three-year low of 5.2% which is considered as well below forecasts, due to lethargic government spending and weak exports according to government officials who released the latest Philippine economic growth report this year.
The growth rate this year was lower than the 5.6 percent expansion posted in the same period aside from being way below the 6.6 percent growth registered during the fourth quarter of the year 2014.
According to government data, the expansion in the January-March period was the worst since the 3.8-percent expansion in the last quarter of 2011. The Philippines has recently been one of Asia’s best performing economies but this year’s first quarter expansion is getting slower.
The first quarter economic growth of the Philippines was lower than the 6.6 percent median forecast of a Bloomberg survey and well off Manila’s full-year forecast of seven to eight percent.
During the year 2014, the Philippine economy grew by 6.1% below the 6.5-.5% goal, mainly on anemic government spending on public goods and services. The national government targets a GDP growth rate of 7-8% for the year 2015.
During the past years, the Philippines is considered as the second-fastest growing economy in Asia only behind China, but now the country is trailing behind Southeast Asian neighbors, Vietnam and Malaysia.
