Philippine economic growth slow

MANILA: Philippine economic growth in the first quarter slowed to a three-year low of 5.2 percent, well below forecasts, due to lethargic government spending and weak exports, officials said Thursday.
The expansion in the January-March period for what has recently been one of Asia´s best performing economies was the worst since the 3.8-percent expansion in the last quarter of 2011, according to government data.
It was also lower than the 6.6-percent median forecast of a Bloomberg survey and well off Manila´s full-year forecast of seven to eight percent.
“While growth in the private sector remains robust, the slower than programmed pace of public spending, particularly the decline in public construction, has slowed down the overall growth of the economy,” Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told reporters.
“Exports were the other source of the slowdown,” he said, blaming the growth downtrend in China and some emerging economies for the weak demand.
The government also revised growth in the fourth quarter of last year to 6.6 percent, from 6.9 percent.