The Philippine economy will bounce back this year with growth of at least 5% from last year’s 4.4%, supported by robust fundamentals and a solid performance in its key revenue sectors, Finance Secretary Frederick Go said yesterday.
He told a forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) that growth in the first half of 2025 was at 5.6% but slowed down due to a corruption scandal that cut public spending and negatively affected consumer and investor confidence.
“We will bounce back. And we will definitely have a GDP of at least 5%, and working towards 5 plus,” Go told foreign correspondents.
“All the other pillars of growth of our country remain solid and reliable,” the finance chief said, citing remittance growth from its overseas workers and revenues from the business process outsourcing sector.
He said the government’s economic team will remain focused on its goals despite the “many distractions.”
“Flood control exposes, global events like the reciprocal tariffs as well as natural disasters that hit the Philippines. We’re so used to typhoons, but I guess we’re not used to earthquakes, and all these events in the second half of last year affected our GDP growth,” Go said.
One of the things that could help lift the economy up, he pointed out, is the resolution of the flood control scandal and the return of the stolen money to the government.
“The solution is simply prosecution, restitution, and genuine reforms. The people want to see people punished and go to jail,” Go said.
The government is set to spend P1.4 trillion in the first quarter to stimulate the economy.
“Reminding all my fellow cabinet members about smart spending, spending efficiently, and making sure that we spend projects with the highest multiplier effects,” Go said.
The Philippines economy grew at its slowest non-pandemic pace in 14 years in 2025.
The 4.4 percent expansion was well below a June projection of 5.5-6.5 percent, which was already a downgrade that took into consideration the imposition of US tariffs and “global uncertainties”.
The full-year figure was the worst since a 3.9 percent rate in 2011 — though it contracted 9.5 percent in 2020 during the Covid crisis.
