Manila revising economic growth target

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MANILA, July 8 (AFP): The Philippine government is revising its economic growth target for the rest of 2008, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said today as the country battles high inflation and slowing world growth.

But Teves did not indicate the likely outcome of the revision of targets for this year and 2009, which comes as experts predict higher Philippine borrowing costs after annual inflation hit a 14-year high above 11 per cent in June.

The global downturn "will really hit us in 2008, especially during the second half," he told reporters, adding world economic conditions should improve next year.

Philippine economic growth eased to an annual rate of 5.2 per cent in the three months to March after rising by 7.2 per cent in 2007, which was the highest figure in decades.

Many Asian nations fear economic growth will slow due to surging inflation as food and fuel costs rocket amid a global boom in commodity prices. They also worry about the slowdown in the US, the world's biggest economy.

The Philippines daily Business World said the government would slightly widen the 2008 target to between 5.7-6.6 per cent, from 5.7-6.5 per cent. It said the 2009 target would become 6.1-7.0 per cent, from 6.2-7.0 per cent.

Meanwhile, President Gloria Arroyo said her cabinet was studying the country's foreign trade data, saying the Philippines should try to boost exports as import costs for oil and rice bite.

She said the exports could include "hard commodities such as primary products, supplemented by soft commodities such as tourism and outsourced business processing."