Growth of Philippine economy ranks third in Asia
THE Philippine economy grew 6.7 percent in 2017, remaining one of Asia’s best performers despite a weaker business process outsourcing industry, the government announced yesterday.
Government spending ensured the country remained one of Asia’s fastestgrowing major economies, behind only China and Vietnam, Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia told reporters.
However he said last year’s growth was slower than the 6.9 percent gross domestic product (GDP) rise in 2016, when consumer spending was boosted during elections that propelled President Rodrigo Duterte to power.
But the 2017 figure was “a good performance”, Pernia said, with China having reported 6.9 percent 2017 GDP growth last week and Vietnam achieving a 10-year-high expansion of 6.81 percent over the same period.
Philippine economic growth in the three months to December 2017 was at an annualised 6.6 percent clip, slower than the previous quarter’s 7 percent pace.
The business processing outsourcing industry, worth $23 billion and employing 1.15 million people, was a “major contributing factor to this decline”, Pernia said.
The sector, which has become a major pillar of the Philippine econo- my, includes call centres and offices that carry out such functions for overseas companies as accounting, medical and legal transcription, software design, animation and even architecture.
Industry officials said investment fell 31.3 percent year-on-year in the three months to last June, with threats by US President Donald Trump to bring back jobs outsourced abroad cited as a key factor.
There was also concern in the Philippines that automation and artificial intelligence could eventually steal call-centre jobs.
The Philippines’ fourth-quarter growth was marginally lower than market expectations, said Sanjay Mathur, chief Southeast Asia and India economist for ANZ Research, adding that the trade balance in the last two months of 2017 also deteriorated.