IMF cuts PHL 2013 growth forecast from 4.9% to 4.8%

The International Monetary Fund's 2012 growth forecast for the Philippines remains at 4.8 percent, but its 2013 forecast for the country has taken a little dip, from 4.9 percent to 4.8 percent.  In the latest quarterly update of its “World Economic Outlook," the IMF said emerging markets like the Philippines will be weighed down in the short term by the sovereign debt and banking crisis in the euro zone, and the US' weak growth performance. The US and Europe's being key export markets for emerging markets should also continue dampen export earnings and drag down global investor sentiment. “In the short term, a further escalation of the euro area crisis and failure to address the US fiscal cliff are the main external risks for the [emerging Asian] region,” the IMF said in the report. The IMF's twin 4.8-percent forecasts for the country's GDP growth in 2012 and 2013 are below the government's projections of 5 to 6 percent this year and 6 to 7 percent in 2013. The government stressed that the IMF's forecasts are usually conservative and fall short of actual growth rates. The Philippines' economy grew by 6.1 percent in the first half of 2012. The IMF also cut its growth forecast for the global economy to 3.3 percent in 2012 (from 3.5 percent) and 3.6 percent in 2013 (from 3.9 percent). — BM, GMA News