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The Philippines - Fastest Growing Economy in South East Asia

Courtesy of ADB

The Philippine economy was forecast to remain on a steady growth path in 2021 and 2022, supported by an acceleration in the government’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination program and a sharp drop in COVID-19 cases according to a report released, by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in earlier days at 4.5% and 5.5% respectively.

However, by the end of 2021, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported its GDP growth, expanded faster than expected, hit a remarkable 5.6% exceeded even the 5.5% forecast for 2022 by the ADB.

“The Philippine economy has shown impressive resilience. Growth momentum has clearly picked up on the back of the government’s vigorous drive to vaccinate Filipinos against the COVID-19 virus. Public spending on infrastructure and continued vaccination of the population will help the country further accelerate its recovery in 2022” said ADB Philippines Country Director Kelly Bird.

On 26 January 2022, in the Economic Outlook Briefing organized by the Board of Investments (BOI), the IHS Markit (a global data & financial expect) forecast the Philippine economy to grow strongly in 2022 despite threading the needle between the threat of spiking COVID cases and opening the economy to more investments. According to Rajiv Biswas, Executive Director and APAC Chief Economist of IHS Markit, "2022 will be another year of global recovery, with around 7% GDP growth forecast for the Philippines helped by buoyant domestic demand". IHS Markit forecast surpassing ADB 5.5% forecast.

Biswas also projected with confidence that, “The Philippines will become one of Asia’s USD1-Trillion economies by 2033 and foreign investors will increasingly focus on the opportunities created by the fast-growing domestic consumer market in the Philippines”. Also added that "A key factor that will improve the attractiveness of the Philippines economy over the next decade is the burgeoning size of the domestic consumer market."

"The door to economic recovery is now fully open," Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua told a briefing, as he predicted growth would accelerate this year. "We are on the correct path to a resilient recovery." The Philippines is aiming to achieve GDP growth rates of 7.0%-9.0% for 2022 and 6.0%-7.0% for both 2023 and 2024, banking on an accelerated vaccination drive to allow the economy to reopen further.

The Philippines has a steadily growing economy, with a gross domestic product (GDP) that reached over USD362B in 2020 and it is expected to increase substantially to over USD540B by 2026. With all signs pointing to an attractive emerging market, participants to this event would be rewarded with great potential and opportunity to capture a slice of the market with their excellence products and services.

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