The Philippine economy grew 7.4 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, slower than the revised 8.2 percent expansion in the first quarter and 12.1 percent a year ago, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Tuesday.
It marked five consecutive quarters of GDP growth since the economy contracted at the height of the pandemic in 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, said national statistician and civil registrar general Dennis Mapa.
Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said this placed the Philippines as the second-fastest growing economy in Southeast Asia, next only to Vietnam which expanded 7.7 percent in the same quarter.
Balisacan said the country should continue to apply risk protocols to sustain the high growth for the rest of the year.
Economic growth in the first half averaged 7.8 percent, above the target range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent set by the government. Economic managers expect the annual GDP growth to settle within a range of 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent from 2023 to 2028.
Data showed that main contributors to the second-quarter growth were wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, which expanded 9.7 percent; construction, 19.0 percent; and transportation and storage, 27.1 percent.
The gross national income went up 9.3 percent in the second quarter, on the back of a 64.8-percent surge in net primary income from the rest of the world.
Mapa said the agriculture, fishery and forestry sector grew 0.2 percent in the second quarter; industry, 6.3 percent; and services, 9.1 percent.
He said that on a seasonally adjusted basis, the GDP shrank 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter, while the GNI grew 0.6 percent.
Mapa said that on the demand side, household final consumption expenditure grew by 8.6 percent in the second quarter.
Other items that also recorded growth are government final consumption expenditure, 11.1 percent; gross capital formation, 20.5 percent; exports of goods and services, 4.3 percent; and imports of goods and services, 13.6 percent.