RP GDP grew 6.4% in Q1, topping forecasts

RP GDP grew 6.4% in Q1, topping forecasts

Brisk consumer spending and a buoyant farm sector output
pushed Philippine economic growth above forecasts to 6.4 percent
from a year earlier in the three months to March, officials said
on Thursday.

Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said the first quarter
result should give the oil-dependent and debt-laden Southeast
Asian economy sufficient cushion to weather rising crude oil
prices and an expected rise in interest rates later this year.

Brisk private consumption boosted by spending related to
campaigning for the May 10 presidential election, and a buoyant
farm sector helped push the gross domestic product (GDP) up by
6.4 percent, Neri told a news conference.

Economists polled by financial news service AFX-Asia had
earlier forecast GDP growth of between 4.3 and 5.5 percent.

GDP grew 2.2 percent from the previous three months.

The gross national product, which includes net factor income
from abroad, expanded 6.2 percent from the previous year.

Neri said the government decided to maintain its full-year GDP
growth target of between 4.9 and 5.8 percent despite the adverse
news on the oil and interest rates fronts.

"The economy's engines of growth were generally healthy. All
economic sectors vigorously expanded," he said.

"The economy has enough bright spots to mitigate rises in oil
prices and interest rates."

He said inflation should be at the "higher end" of the
government's target of between 4.0 and 4.5 percent.

The government said agricultural output rose 7.7 percent,
compared to 2.9 percent in the comparable period last year.

The services sector grew 6.4 percent, compared to 5.6 percent
in the same period last year.

Industrial output also increased by 5.5 percent, compared to
4.1 percent in the comparative quarter last year.

Meanwhile, the government revised the 2003 GDP growth upward
to 4.7 percent, from 4.5 percent. -- AFP