MANILA (Xinhua) — The Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2025 grew by 5.4 percent from a year earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday.
In a press conference, PSA head Dennis Mapa said the main contributors to the first quarter growth were wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, financial and insurance activities, and manufacturing.
On the demand side, household final consumption expenditure grew by 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2025.
Department of Economy, Planning, and Development Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said the first quarter GDP is “a sign of steady growth.”
“The growth is faster than what we saw during the fourth quarter of 2024, which was at 5.3 percent, although slower than the 5.9 percent we saw during the first quarter of 2024,” Edillon said in the same briefing.
“So while this phase falls short of our initial expectations, it reflects developments from the broader global context of tempered economic activity amid persistent uncertainties,” she said.
In April, the Asian Development Bank said it forecast the Philippines’ GDP to expand by 6 percent this year and 6.1 percent in 2026. The Manila-based bank made it clear that its growth forecasts were finalized before the April 2 announcement of new tariffs by the U.S. administration, so the baseline projections only reflect tariffs that were in place previously.
