ADB cuts RP growth forecast for 2009 to 1%

MANILA, Philippines (Xinhua) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) forecasts that the Philippine economy will slow to 1 percent this year as damages wrought by typhoons Ketsana and Parma dampen consumption.  

The latest ADB forecast, which was issued Tuesday, is lower than the 1.6 percent growth forecast it presented in September. But ADB maintained its 3.3 percent GDP forecast for 2010.

ADB Chief Economist Jong-Wha Lee said in a press briefing that the ADB didn’t expect the Philippine economy to post an actual GDP growth of 0.7 percent in the first nine months of the year.

The performance of the Philippine economy in the first three quarters was “worse than we expected,” Lee said.

“The external environment was not very good to the Philippine economy (and) unemployment is high (which had a) negative impact on (domestic) demand. The typhoons also dampened growth,” he said.

While the ADB revised its growth projection for the Philippines downward, the bank was more bullish when it came to the GDP growth prospects of emerging economies in the East Asian region.

The ADB said that the 14 economies of emerging East Asian region will collectively grow by 4.2 percent this year and by 6.8 percent in 2010. That is higher than the September forecast of 3.6 percent and 6.5 percent, respectively.