Economy grows 4.6% in Q3 amid crisis

Gross domestic product (GDP) in the third quarter grew 4.6 percent from a year earlier, despite the global financial crisis, government data showed Thursday.

The economy expanded a seasonally adjusted 0.9 percent in July to September from the second quarter.

The government has revised second quarter GDP growth to an annual 4.4 percent from the previously announced 4.6 percent.

Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist, at Banco de Oro Universal Bank said: "This is good and it's better than my forecast of 4.4 percent. Quite unexpected as the quarter was the height of the US financial crisis."

Nicholas Bibby, economist at Barclays Capital said: "It came out better than expected. We've been looking for 4.0 percent (year-on-year). We thought that given the surge in consumer price inflation through the third quarter it would have had a big drag on private consumption.

"Private consumption may be a bit stronger than what we've thought and the government did increase public spending through the third quarter. Overall though, growth is expected to slow. We're looking for GDP growth of around 3.0 percent next year."

The government had forecast third quarter economic growth at 3.8-4.6 percent from a year earlier. Growth is also expected to come in between 4.1 and 4.8 percent this year after it hit 7.2 percent in 2007, a 31-year high.

The International Monetary Fund has cut its 2008 growth forecast for the Philippines to 4.4 percent from 5.2 percent earlier this year.

Inflation, which climbed to a 17-year high of 12.5 percent year-on-year in August, is expected to continue to slow and return to single digits as early as this month, the central bank said.
The Philippines' main economic drivers are exports of electronics and agriculture goods, and domestic demand fuelled largely by remittances from overseas Filipino workers.

Merchandise exports for the first nine months of the year rose 4.04 percent from a year earlier but exports contracted 2.7 percent in September from the same 2007 period.

Business and Society -1

Good morning friends. I was reading one of our newspaper here in our country and I found one article in business section. I want to share it with you. It's a good news.

Among the emerging markets that in the next twenty years will dominate the global economy are three Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. They have been included in the famous "Next Eleven" (after the BRIC countries) because of their large internal markets and their rich natural resources. A recent article in Newsweek by George Wehrfritz (October 11, 2008) entitled "Indonesia As the New India," should serve a food for thought for our leaders, both in the public and private sectors.

According to Mr. Wehrfritz, Indonesia’s economy is so buoyant that it can be compared to another Asian giant: India: "Both remain corrupt, chaotic and excruciatingly complex. Yet each is also an attractive emerging economy and in India’s case a star of the developing world. Could Indonesia be next? Its economy grew by 6.3 percent last year, the main stock exchange ranks among the world’s best performers since 2003 and last year foreign direct investment nearly tripled, to a respectable billion. All of which resembles India in the 1990s, when reforms kick-started a potentially massive economy – though outsiders barely noticed until the IT sector took off and growth passed 8 percent. In Indonesia, the key sectors are energy, mining and soft commodities like rubber, palm oil and cocoa. And in an exclusive interview, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono says he sees no inherent reason why a big democracy like his can’t grow as fast as China, which has posted 10 percent growth rates in recent years."