A combination of expensive consumer goods and slow mass vaccination at a time when COVID-19 is surging has prompted the World Bank to temper its growth recovery expectations for the Philippines while an economic research company said the economy was in a “worrisome state.”
The World Bank (WB) on Friday slashed its 2021 growth forecast for the country to 5.5 percent from 5.9 percent, below the government’s conservative 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth target for this year.
GDP fell by a record 9.5 percent last year—the worst post-war outturn—due to the longest and most stringent COVID-19 lockdown in the region which shed millions of jobs and shut do…
Keep on reading: WB notes poor vaccine rollout; PH economy in ‘worrisome state’