The Philippine government is expecting a "better figure" of the country's economic performance in the first quarter of this year compared to the fourth quarter of 2011, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda, in his regular press briefing, raised the optimism as the country's exports ended an eight-month slum by growing three percent year-on-year in January.
"We expect a better figure for the first quarter," he said.
The country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year.Lacierda said that the early release of budget on infrastructure projects could also buoy the economy from January to March.
He said that the Department of Budget and Management has already released 85 percent of the budget on infrastructure.
Lacierda also hoped that the Philippines could exceed its 5-6 percent GDP growth target for this year.
With the recovery of Japan from last year's tragedy, he hoped that the country's exports will continue to rebound.
"Despite international economic unease, more encouraging reports on the Philippine economy continue to pour in," he added.
Lacierda, however, could not say yet if there will be any plan to change the economic growth target for the year.
"Right now it's too early to tell. We certainly would like to see a continued growth in exports, we're not yet even finished with the first quarter. So we can't say for sure if we're going to adjust the numbers on GDP," he said./.