Economy grows at faster 6.3% pace in Q2

The Philippine economy posted a faster growth rate in the second quarter, despite anemic consumption spending amid increased investments and government spending.

- LOUELLA DESIDERIO and DELON PORCALLA

In a press briefing yesterday, Philippine Statistics Authority Undersecretary Dennis Mapa said the country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 6.3 percent in the second quarter of this year.

This is faster than the 4.3 percent expansion in the second quarter last year and the revised 5.8 percent growth in the first quarter of 2024.

Mapa said the second quarter GDP growth is also the fastest since the 6.4 percent expansion in the first quarter of 2023.

National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the growth in the second quarter brings the GDP growth in the first half to six percent, putting the country on track to achieve its six to seven percent growth target for this year.

"This performance keeps our position as one of Asia's best-performing major emerging economies," he said, noting that among East Asia's economies that have released their second quarter 2024 GDP growth, the Philippines is just behind Vietnam's 6.9 percent, but ahead of Malaysia's 5.8 percent, Indonesia's five percent and China's 4.7 percent.

Household spending, the top contributor to the GDP growth on the demand side, grew by 4.6 percent in the second quarter this year, slower than the 5.5 percent in the same period last year.