Philippines lifts 2010 economic growth figure
2011-05-17 13:15:51
The Philippines has upgraded its record economic growth of last year to 7.6 per cent from the 7.3 per cent originally reported, President Benigno Aquino said Tuesday.
Economic managers had re-analysed the data and concluded that their computation had been off by 0.3 percentage points, the Filipino leader said.
"I would like to break the news to you that Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima informed me yesterday that they had completed the computation of the economic growth last year," Aquino told a government forum.
"He said we made a mistake in saying the economy grew 7.3 (per cent). The correct figure was a 7.6 (per cent) increase."
The initial growth figure of 7.3 per cent was already the fastest expansion for the Philippine economy since democracy was restored to the country in 1986.
The government said when releasing the initial data in January that one main reason for the record performance -- coming off growth of 0.9 per cent in 2009 -- was the rest of the world recovering from the global financial crisis.
It also cited renewed investor confidence in the government after Aquino won a landslide election last year on the back of a campaign promise to fight widespread corruption.