IMF slashes Phl growth forecasts for 2025, 2026

WEAKER GLOBAL OUTLOOK, TRADE TENSIONS:

- By KEISHA TA-ASAN

In its latest World Economic Outlook (WEO), the IMF revised its 2025 gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for the Philippines to 5.5 percent from 6.1 percent previously.

It also downgraded its 2026 GDP growth projection to 5.8 percent from the 6.3 percent the multilateral lender gave in January.

The IMF told The STAR that the downward revisions reflect the lower-than-expected growth outturn in the fourth quarter of 2024, when GDP hit 5.2 percent. This brought the full-year average to 5.6 percent last year.

Early this month, the Philippine Statistics Authority revised upward the country's GDP growth for the fourth quarter to 5.3 percent from 5.2 percent and the 2024 expansion to 5.7 percent from 5.6 percent.

According to the IMF, the downgrade also reflects "external developments, including the direct impact of higher tariffs on the Philippines' goods exports to the US, downward revisions to trading partners' growth and impact of higher uncertainty and financial tightening."