The recovery of the Philippine economy is...
The recovery of the Philippine economy is gaining momentum, with growth in the first nine months of the year at its quickest pace since President Corazon Aquino was swept to power. The national statistics office said real growth in gross national product rose 7.54% in the first nine months of 1988, against 5.14% in 1987.
The figures should help the Philippines in negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a new loan package of $1.3 billion to help underpin the economic recovery of the heavily indebted Pacific nation. Talks are to resume this month after they were unexpectedly suspended in November because Manila could not agree on economic policies with the IMF.
Philippine officials said the IMF wanted the Philippines to scale back growth targets to around 6% in order to cut the budget deficit, while increasing its low foreign exchange reserves and further liberalizing trade. The Philippines is burdened with large overseas debts of around $28 billion.
Growth was fueled by the strong performance of the industrial sector, which showed an 8.9% growth over the nine-month period against 7.6% in 1987, the report stated. Construction was up by 16.4%.
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