Philippines upgrades Q2 GDP

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine economy grew faster than initially estimated in the second quarter, state statisticians reported Monday.

Gross domestic product grew 12% year-on-year in the April-June period, better than the 11.8% preliminary reading reported in August, the Philippine Statistics Authority said in a statement.

The upward revision was due to adjustments to growth rates of some sectors. During the period, education grew 12.6% on-year from 10.0% previously, while financial and insurance activities expanded 5.2% from the old estimate of 4.2%.

Construction, meanwhile, posted an annualized growth rate of 27.1%, better than 25.7% expansion reported back in August.

The latest figures take into account a larger set of data that include those belatedly reported by agencies and therefore were not considered in computing initial GDP numbers. Revisions are typically made by the PSA to better reflect the state of the economy.

The PSA will release the third quarter GDP data on Tuesday. A BusinessWorld poll of 18 analysts forecast GDP to have grown 4.7% last quarter, slower than the preceding quarter after Metro Manila and other areas briefly returned to hard lockdowns last August following a surge in cases fueled by the Delta variant.

That retightening of curbs prompted economic officials to temper their growth target for this year to 4-5% from their old projection of 6-7%. The economy has since and the government is now enforcing targeted lockdowns to minimize economic losses from prolonged restrictions.