ADB keeps Phl growth outlook at 4.5% for 2021

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has retained its 2021 economic growth outlook for the Philippines at 4.5 percent, but warned of continued downside risks from more transmissible COVID variants that may lead to fresh spikes in cases and lockdown measures.

- LOUISE MAUREEN SIMEON

In its Asian Development Outlook 2021 Update released yesterday, the Manila-based multilateral lender said it is sticking to its gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for the Philippines at 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent for 2021 and 2022, respectively.

In contrast, its GDP outlook for Southeast Asia has been slashed to 3.1 percent from four percent in July and 4.4 percent in its original outlook in April amid the Delta variant that slowed the region’s growth momentum.

ADB’s forecast now falls within the government’s revised GDP growth target of four to five percent for the whole year. The economy is coming off a 9.6 percent contraction last year.

In Southeast Asia, ADB gave a sea of downgrades across nine countries. It maintained forecasts for the Philippines while it hiked growth for Singapore.

Based on ADB’s projections, the Philippines is poised to register the third-highest growth in the region, next to Singapore’s 6.5 percent and Malaysia’s 4.7 percent.

In a briefing, ADB Macroeconomics Research Division director Abdul Abiad said the huge economic contraction for the Philippines last year would allow a stronger bounce-back in 2021.