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Fitch subsidiary revises 2023 PH economic growth outlook upward

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<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Traffic builds up along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City amid cloudy skies and light rain showers on Aug. 8, 2022. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2022/business/08/25/20220808-commonwealth-traffic-md-2.jpg"/><figcaption>Traffic builds up along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City amid cloudy skies and light rain showers on Aug. 8, 2022. <em>Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>MANILA -- A subsidiary of Fitch Solutions on Tuesday said it was upgrading its growth outlook for the Philippines.</p><p>BMI revised its full year growth forecast for the Philippines to 5.7 percent after the gross domestic product expanded by 5.9 percent in the third quarter of 2023. </p><p>The July to September GDP growth was higher than the 4.8 percent median forecast in a survey of analysts done by ABS-CBN.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/11/09/23/philippine-economy-grows-59-percent-in-third-quarter">Philippine economy grows 5.9 percent in third quarter of 2023</a></li></ul><p>The company cut its growth outlook for the Philippines to 5.3 percent in August.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/08/11/23/fitch-subsidiary-slashes-2023-ph-economic-outlook">Fitch subsidiary slashes 2023 PH economic outlook</a></li></ul><p>BMI said the economy would gradually grow over the next few quarters as household spending picks up.</p><p>&quot;We continue to expect inflationary pressures to recede over the coming months. Our base forecast is for headline inflation to reach 4.7 percent by<br/>end-2023 before settling within the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) target range of 2.0-4.0 percent in 2024,&quot; BMI said.</p><p>The Fitch Solutions unit, however, said that the government&#x27;s target range of 6.5-8.0 percent would be hard to achieve, as high interest rates kept a cap on investment activity.</p><p>&quot;Our current expectation is for the benchmark policy rate to be raised by an additional 25 basis points (bps) in the upcoming November meeting due to concerns over price stability,&quot; BMI said.</p><p>The company noted that the BSP could cut rates in the second half of 2024 in lockstep with the United States Federal Reserve.</p><p>BMI added that weak global growth would affect the Philippine economy.</p><p>&quot;Against the backdrop of weak global growth, demand for Philippine goods and services looks set to remain lackluster,&quot; it said.</p><p>BMI said the global economy might only expand 2.1 percent in 2024. On top of this, US and China , which account for about 30 percent of Philippine total merchandise exports, will see their economies slow down next year. </p><p>&quot;This makes it exceedingly difficult for Philippine trade to stage a turnaround next year,&quot; BMI said.</p><div><strong>RELATED STORY:</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2822781" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

A subsidiary of Fitch Solutions is upgrading its growth outlook for the Philippines.