Philippines: GDP growth beats forecast as COVID-19 slows

Manila: The Philippine economy expanded faster than expected in the fourth quarter of 2021, with consumer spending picking up as the COVID-19 infection rate slowed ahead of the Christmas holidays, data showed on Thursday.

The Southeast Asian country’s gross domestic product rose 7.7 per cent in the December quarter from a year earlier, faster than the downwardly revised 6.9 per cent expansion in the previous quarter, and well above a 6.0 per cent forecast in a Reuters poll.

That brought full-year GDP growth to 5.6 per cent, exceeding the government’s 5.0 per cent-5.5 per cent target.