The International Monetary Fund said it reduced the 2019 growth forecast for the Philippines to 6.5 percent from 6.6 percent due to the delayed approval of the 2019 national government budget.
IMF resident representative Yongzheng Yang said another reason for the downgrade was the slowing external demand as reported by the IMF in the April 2019 World Economic Outlook.
“The downward revision to the growth forecast for 2019 mainly reflects weaker-than-expected external demand and lower-than-expected public investment partly reflecting the delay in the approval of the 2019 budget,” Yang said in a message to reporters.
The IMF said the lingering trade tensions between the US and China and the policy normalization in advanced economies might affect the majority of the countries in the world.
The 2019 GDP forecast for the Philippines is faster than the 6.2-percent actual expansion in 2018. Only Vietnam and the Philippines are expected to grow by more than 6.5 percent this year among the five major economies of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.