Economic expansion in Q2 faster than initially estimated — PSA

THE PHILIPPINE ECONOMY in the second quarter grew at a faster pace than previously reported, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said a day before it announces preliminary figures for the July- September period.

Gross domestic product (GDP) — the value of all finished goods and services produced in the country — increased by 6.7% in the April-June period, faster than the preliminary 6.5%, the PSA said yesterday.

This brought the first-semester pace to 6.6% from 6.45% initially, against the government’s 6.5-7.5% target for the year.

“The top three contributors to the upward revision were financial intermediation; construction; and real estate, renting and business activities,” the state statistician said in a statement yesterday.

According to the PSA, financial intermediation — classified under the service sector — grew by 9.1% in the second quarter, up from the initially reported 6.1%.

Real estate, renting and business activities similarly increased by 8.3% from the preliminary 7.9% while, under the industry sector, construction also rose by 7.1% from 6.3% previously.

The second- quarter 2016 revision comes ahead of today’s release of the preliminary estimate for third-quarter GDP.

A BusinessWorld poll of 11 economists and analysts late last week yielded an estimate median of 6.6% for that period, matching that of Moody’s Analytics.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia was quoted in earlier reports as saying that full-year growth will likely settle around the midpoint of the government’s target band for 2017, with third-quarter growth hopefully outpacing that of the second quarter due to a rise in merchandise exports and government spending on infrastructure.