Economy grows 7.3%, fastest in 31 years

(FAST GROWTH. NSCB Secretary General Dr. Romulo A. Virola tells the press that the economy expanded by 7.3% in 2007, the fastest growth in 31 years. In photo left to right: NSCB-ESO Director Raymundo J. Talento, Dr. Virola, Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning and Chair of the NSCB Board Mr. Augusto B. Santos and NEDA-NPPS OIC-Director Myrna B. Asuncion. Official photo from NSCB.)

What do you know, while we were all worrying ourselves to depression, the economy grew 7.3% in 2007 – the fastest growth in 31 years.

Read this breaking news from INQUIRER.net:

MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 2) The economy expanded by a forecast-beating 7.3 percent in 2007, its fastest pace in 31 years, boosted by the services sector, the government said Thursday.

“In an environment of benign inflation, low interest rates and a strong peso, the Philippine economy turned in its best performance in 31 years,” said Romulo Virola, the secretary-general of the National Statistics Coordination Board.

“On the demand side, increased consumer spending, investments in public and private construction, government spending and exports of non-factor services largely contributed to the remarkable performance of the economy.”

Following the strong performance last year, Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said the government is maintaining its forecast that growth will slow to 6.3-7.0 percent in 2008 given the expected slowdown in the US, the biggest market for Philippine exports.

“What we are saying is that if there is a recession in the US, then that will affect us, but the situation is closely being monitored,” he told a media briefing.

Santos said the world’s largest economy is unlikely to slip into recession.

“As we see it, there may in fact be no recession in the US given the stimulus package of the Bush administration.”

Here’s how our growth rates look since 2000:

2000 — 4.38
2001 — 1.76
2002 — 4.45
2003 — 4.93
2004 — 6.38
2005 — 4.87
2006 — 5.45
2007 — 7.3

Before the announcement, analysts were expecting a 50 basis point cut in the central bank’s policy rates. Now, they are saying it could be smaller at 25 basis points. We will know for sure in a few hours. A bigger cut would have been better for stocks, not so good for bonds, but investors can’t really complain with the 7.3% figure.

Of course, economists will be reacting all over the place in the next few days. There were several significant upward revisions in the quarterly growth rates. The third quarter 2007 figure was revised upwards by 1.0 percent, there was a 1.7 percent rise in the second quarter and 2.5 percent revision in the first quarter. Economists in Ateneo de Manila and the University of the Philippines will have a field day commenting on how long it took the government to report on these revisions.

Here’s hoping our net worth grew as much, or more than 7.3% in 2007. Even better if our emotional and wellbeing balance sheets register high net worth. Have fun today and enjoy each moment!

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