A view of Manila (Source: BBC)The World Bank (WB) has predicted that the Philippines will continue its robust growth in 2017 with an economic expansion of 6.8 percent, a slight drop compared to the earlier forecast of 6.9 percent it gave in April.
However, it maintained the April prediction for 2018 growth at 6.9 percent.
The WB said that the Philippines’ government consumption and investment growth was slightly weaker due to lower public spending in the first quarter of 2017, but private consumption and exports remained high.
Consumption is expected to grow at 5.6 percent in 2017 and 6.1 percent in 2018. The bank said remittance flows play a role in maintaining this consumption growth in the medium term, adding remittances increased by 8 percent in the first quarter of this year, up 5 percent year-on-year.
It also said in line with the gradually improving global economy and trade, strong demand of the Philippines' main trading partners will boost the country’s exports./.