THE Philippine economy is likely to inch closer to 6.3 percent in the first quarter of 2020, considering factors such as the coronavirus, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reported.
IMF resident representative Yongzheng Yang said the Philippine economy is likely to grow by 6.3 percent in 2020, with first-quarter growth close to that.
The IMF in November last year upgraded its 2020 growth outlook to 6.3 percent, up from the 6.2 percent it announced in October.
According to Yang, the economy is likely to be slumped by the virus, given its impact on tourism.
āThe coronavirus, as you know, has caused a lot of anxieties and restrictions on travel. The Philippine economy, as you know, is not immune to that. I think about the major sector that comes to my mind would be tourism,ā he said.
He added China as the outbreakās epicenter, traveling from there is now mostly as āstopped to this country.ā
āChina is one of the largest sources of tourism for the Philippines so this will certainly have negative impact on the economy,ā he said.
The Department of Health on Monday reported that the number of persons under investigation (PUI) has risen to 314.
Meanwhile, over 1,000 people have so far died in China, with most deaths recorded in the provincial capital of Wuhan, the epicenter of the outbreak.
āThe other impact would be impact on the global value chain that would impact the Philippines, it could also affect the sentiment, the confidence in certain sectors like tourism as I said, so we do expect there will be a negative impact on the Philippines from the outbreak,ā said Yang. (GMA News)