THE country’s economic growth will fall short of expectations in the last quarter of the year as Filipinos continue to struggle with high inflation. This is expected to lead to full-year growth of below 6 percent according to First Metro Investment Corp.-University Asia and the Pacific (FMIC-UA&P) Capital Markets Research and the Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (Amro) this year. FMIC-UA&P Capital Markets Research expects full-year growth to average 5.
8 percent while Amro estimated that the country’s GDP growth will only average 5.6 percent. “All told, while the possibility of a slightly slower GDP uptick in the fourth quarter exists, full year growth should hold at 5.8 percent, which still exceeds most forecasts,” FMIC-UA&P Capital Markets Research said. The government’s growth target for the year is 6 to 7 percent—where achieving the low-end would require a 7.2 percent growth in the last quarter of 2023. “GDP growth in 2023 is projected to moderate to 5.6 percent due to high base effects and weaker external demand, before edging up to