Philippine GDP growth slows

Philippine GDP growth slows

MANILA (Reuters): The Philippines economy put in its worst performance in two years in the first quarter, hit by political volatility at home, a dip in global demand for electronics products and a slowdown in the United States.

The government said GDP growth was 2.5 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, down from a revised 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2000.

Analysts said the figure was in line with expectations or slightly lower and was the lowest since the first quarter of 1999, when the economy grew 1.2 percent.

A Reuters poll of economists had forecast on average that the figure would come in at 2.7 percent.

Officials were optimistic that domestic demand will partly offset the impact of weaker exports going forward.

"It's a fact that the external market is weak, but we saw the numbers and the source of growth will be the domestic economy," Gilbert Llanto, socio-economic planning undersecretary, said in a news briefing.