By: AP
The Philippine economy grew 6.5 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, boosted by strong industry, farm recovery, and with the services sector rising slower but remaining a main driver of growth, officials said yesterday.
“We are all well on track to meeting our full-year target growth of 6.5-7.5 percent,” Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said, adding achieving the lower to middle range of the target is “still realistic.”
The second quarter performance is below the 7.1 percent growth in the same period a year ago, when election-related spending boosted the economy.
But it is slightly up from the first quarter 2017 rise of 6.4 percent. It brings first semester growth to 6.4 percent, lower than seven percent in the same period last year.
Pernia said private consumption slackened but was offset by a boost in government spending, which rose to 7.1 percent from a meager 0.1 percent in the first quarter.