Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno told foreign and domestic investors that the government’s growth target of 6 percent to 7 percent this year remains attainable despite the sluggish 5.6-percent expansion in the first quarter.
Diokno said in a live webcast at the BSP with Swiss bank UBS that the prospects for the Philippine economy remained favorable. “Despite the lower-than-expected growth in the first quarter of 2019, we remain optimistic about meeting the GDP growth target of 6 to 7 percent for this year,” Diokno said.
“We expect that the government’s commitment to accelerate public spending will take the driver’s seat on the supply side, while household spending, supported mainly by cooling inflation and remittance inflows, will spur growth on the demand side,” he said.
He said price pressures also eased since peaking at 6.7 percent in October 2018. Inflation stabilized within the target range of 2 percent to 4 percent, with the June reading falling to 2.7 percent from 3.2 percent in May. He said given its downtrend and with better-anchored inflation expectations from the public, inflation would average 2.7 percent this year and 3 percent next year.
