Philippines says may slip into recession this year

Published: 30 May 2009 17:47:44 PST

MANILA, May 28 - The Philippines may witness an economic recession this year if a downtrend in leading indicators continued, a senior government official said.

"If this trend continues we may slip into recession," Romulo Virola, secretary-general of the National Statistical Coordination Board, told reporters after announcing growth figures for the first quarter.

He said preliminary second quarter numbers were already showing the downtrend continuing.

Socio-economic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto said the government was now less confident of meeting a 2009 growth target of 3.1-4.1 percent, but did not give details. He however said he expected the economy "to stay afloat" during the year.

The economy shrank a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent in the first quarter from the last three months of 2008, much worse than market expectations, the government said earlier.