The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has further downgraded its economic outlook for the Philippines, projecting gross domestic product (GDP) to shrink by 3.6 percent…
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has further downgraded its economic outlook for the Philippines, projecting gross domestic product (GDP) to shrink by 3.6 percent this year.
The updated GDP forecast contained in the IMF’s World Economic Outlook June 2020 Update report released on Wednesday night reversed its earlier forecast in April of at least 0.6-percent growth in 2020.
The IMF’s updated GDP projection for the Philippines is worse than the government’s estimates of 2-3.4-percent decline.
The IMF nonetheless projected the Philippine economy to revert to a 6.8-percent growth next year.
“The downward revision to growth forecasts is mostly attributable to larger-than-expected supply disruptions related to COVID-19 and weaker demand in major trading partners,” said IMF resident representative in the Philippines Yongzheng Yang in an email, partly referring to the impact of the lockdown imposed in mid-March, said to be among the most stringent in the region as it halted 75 percent of domestic economic activity.
“We now expect the resolution of COVID-19 to be more gradual and hence the impact of the pandemic on economic growth to be larger and longer than previously anticipated.
