Philippine GDP grows 7.7% y/y in Q4, beats forecast

MANILA, Jan 27 (Reuters) – 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 PHGDP=ECI rose 7.7% in the December quarter from a year earlier, faster than the downwardly revised 6.9% expansion in the previous quarter, and well above a 6.0% forecast in a Reuters poll.

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

(Reporting by Neil Jerome Morales, Karen Lema and Enrico Dela Cruz
Editing by Ed Davies)

((enrico.delacruz@tr.com))