The economic team has revised the government’s growth forecasts over the medium-term to take into account the impact of anticipated structural reforms as well as domestic and global uncertainties.
In a press conference at the Department of Finance office in Manila on Monday, the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) announced it has revisited and revised some of its macroeconomic and fiscal assumptions to reflect emerging local and global developments.
Specifically, the assumption for the full-year 2024 economic growth was narrowed to six to 6.5 percent from the previous outlook of six to seven percent during the DBCC’s previous meeting in June.
This comes after the slowdown in the third quarter of the year which dragged the average year-to-date growth to 5.8 percent.
During the briefing, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said with the numbers firming up as the year comes to a close, it is highly unlikely the economy will grow by 7 percent, which was previously set as upper band of the target.
In 2025, the growth assumption was also revised to six to eight percent from the previous projection of 6.5 to 7.5 percent.
“There’s so much uncertainty so we thought it best to widen the band,” Recto said.
In 2026 to 2028, the assumption was also changed to six to eight percent from the previous estimate of 6.5 to eight percent. Meanwhile, inflation is expected to average at 3.1 to 3.3 percent for the full year, significantly lower than the average inflation rate of six percent last year.
