IMF sees Philippine Q1 GDP at around 6.3%

The Philippine economy is likely to grow close to 6.3% in the first quarter of the year, considering factors such as the 2019 novel coronavirus (n-CoV), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported.

IMF Resident Representative Yongzheng Yang said the Philippine economy is likely to grow by 6.3% in 2020, with first-quarter growth close to that.

"We expect the quarter growth to be around that range. I don't have the specific numbers with me right now," he told reporters in a press conference in Manila City.

The IMF in November last year upgraded its 2020 growth outlook to 6.3%, up from the 6.2% it announced in October.

According to Yang, the economy is likely to be negatively affected by the nCoV, given its impact on tourism.

"The coronavirus, as you know, has caused a lot of anxieties and restrictions on travel. The Philippine economy, as you know, is not immune to that. I think about the major sector that comes to my mind would be tourism," he said.

"China is the epicenter of this outbreak and traveling from China is now mostly as I understand stopped to this country, so China is one of the largest sources of tourism for the Philippines so that is going to be negatively affected and will certainly have negative impact on the economy."

The Department of Health (DOH) on Monday reported that the number of persons under investigation (PUI) has risen to 314.

Meanwhile, over 1,000 people have so far died in China, with most deaths recorded in the provincial capital of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.

"The other impact would be impact on the global value chain that would impact the Philippines, it could also affect the sentiment, the confidence in certain sectors like tourism as I said, so we do expect there will be a negative impact on the Philippines from the outbreak," said Yang. —KBK, GMA News