In the Philippines (Photo: Internet)
Hanoi (VNA) – The World Bank (WB) has revised downeconomic growth forecasts for the Philippines and Malaysia due to the adverse impacts ofCOVID-19 and strict community quarantine.
Accordingly, the lender forecast that the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) will decrease from 5.9 percent in 2019 to 3 percent in2020. Consumption was predicted to fall strongly in the first half of this yearwhile public transport works and investment in the private sector would slow down.
However, the report predicted that its growthis expected to accelerate rapidly in 2021-2022 as global conditions improve,and with more robust domestic activities bolstered by the public investmentmomentum and a boost from 2022 election-related spending.
The WB also lowered Malaysia’s economic growth forecast to -0.1 percent from 4.5 percent this year.
It said net exports and investments in Malaysia are expectedto experience a larger contraction in 2020, while private consumption will growat a much slower pace, from 7.6 percent in 2019 to 1.6 percent in 2020.
The Malaysian government recently announced an economicstimulus package worth 250 billion ringgit (58.14 billion USD) tomitigate the epidemic’s impact.
Malaysia’s economic growth dropped to the lowest in 10 yearsto 4.3 percent in 2019 when disruptions in supply hit agriculture andproduction./.
