Philippine Growth Above 6% Fuels Market Talk of Rate Hikes

Gross domestic product rises 6.7% in 2017, 6.6% y/y in 4Q
Consumer and government spending recovered last quarter

Gantry cranes load containers onto trucks at Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) at the Port of Manila in Manila, the Philippines, on Friday, Nov. 20, 2015. The Philippines is scheduled to release third quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures on Nov. 26.
Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

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By Cecilia Yap and Siegfrid Alegado

January 23, 2018 at 2:10 AM UTC

Updated on

January 23, 2018 at 6:40 AM UTC

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The Philippines retained its position as one of the world’s fastest-growing economies with growth of more than 6 percent for a sixth consecutive year, fueling calls for the central bank to start raising interest rates to keep inflation under control.

Gross domestic product increased 6.7 percent in 2017, the Philippine Statistics Authority said in Manila Tuesday, matching the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists. The economy rose 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, slightly lower than the 6.7 percent median estimate, prompting the peso and stocks to drop.