Upbeat
No. 08.27.13 No. 2116 10.30.2008
PHL, now ASEAN's economic leader The Philippines is now the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ (ASEAN) economic leader, international credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) reported. “The Philippines, which S&P recently upgraded to investment grade, has taken over the ASEAN growth leadership role from Indonesia. We project Philippine GDP (gross domestic product) to expand by almost 7% this year,” S&P Asia Pacific chief economist Paul Gruenwald said. However, S&P expects the country’s economic output will slow down to 6.1% in the next year but will pick up by 6.5% in 2015.
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Still, this is faster than ASEAN’s growth forecasts of 5.3%, 5.6%, and 5.5% during similar periods.
According to the ratings agency, major ASEAN economies – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam – are more domestically focused than the newly industrialized economies (NIEs). The cited economies tend to do better when global growth becomes slow. S&P projects Indonesia’s growth will be at 6.1% in 2015; Viet Nam and Malaysia, 5.3%; and Thailand, 3.9%. “If you compare the economy to a pie, we are very pleased that international media, and also ourselves, recognize that the pie has grown,” Presidential Spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said. It is important for the administration that the country’s economy has grown under Aquino’s watch but government still wants to make sure that all of the citizens will profit from the economic growth. S&P's growth projections also consider the expected rebound in the United States' economy in the last quarter of 2013 and in 2014. Meanwhile, ASEAN’s forecast remains below trend because of flat growth in Europe, which is Asia’s biggest trading partner.