Philippines Q4 GDP grows 5.2% y/y as typhoons, drought wreck economic growth target

- Photo: Reuters file.

MANILA: The Philippine economy expanded a lower than expected 5.2% in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, official data showed on Thursday (Jan 30), weighed down by weaker consumption and weather disruption that squeezed farm output.

The reading matched the previous quarter's 5.2% expansion but was below the median forecast of 5.4% growth in a Reuters poll of economists.