Philippine Economy Logs Weakest Growth Since Pandemic

(RTTNews) - The Philippine economy registered its weakest growth since the COVID-19 pandemic, official data revealed on Thursday.

Gross domestic product grew only 3.0 percent on a yearly basis in the fourth quarter of 2025, the Philippine Statistics Authority said. This was the weakest performance since the first quarter of 2021, when GDP was down 3.8 percent.

Economists had forecast the annual economic growth to ease slightly to 3.8 percent from 3.9 percent in the third quarter.

In the whole year of 2025, the economy posted a growth of 4.4 percent. The government again missed its growth projection of 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent last year. The government expects 5-6 percent GDP growth this year.

In the fourth quarter, household consumption increased 3.8 percent, weaker than the 4.7 percent rise in the third quarter. Meanwhile, growth in government expenditure decelerated sharply to 3.7 percent from 9.0 percent.

Exports of goods and services surged 13.2 percent from a year ago after a 7.4 percent gain, while imports of goods and services logged a moderate growth of 3.5 percent, following third quarter's 3.2 percent rise.

On the other hand, gross capital formation posted a decline of 10.9 percent mainly due to the decreases in construction and durable equipment.