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.