MANILA – The country’s gross domestic product (GDP) could still grow 6 percent or higher despite the underspending in the first half of the year, a Cabinet official said Friday.
In an interview with ANC, Socioeconomic planning secretary Ernesto Pernia said household consumption and the downward inflation trend could propel economic growth to 6 percent, the low-end of the government’s target of 6 to 7 percent.
“That’s still reachable because household consumption spending. Inflation as you know is still on a downtrend, so it’s not unthinkable that we will reach 6 percent or more,” Pernia said.
Gross domestic product grew 5.5 percent in the second quarter, from 6.2 percent during the same period in 2018 and 5.6 percent in the previous quarter.
Inflation decelerated further in August to 1.7 percent from 2.4 percent in July. It was the first time in nearly 3 years that the inflation was below the government’s target of 2 to 4 percent.