The Philippines economy expanded 6.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015, boosted by services and industry sectors, beating a global downturn.
Overall for the year, the growth was pegged at 5.8 percent, the statistics agency said in a statement.
"The numbers are quite encouraging and reflects the strong infrastructure spending push. We expect this trajectory to be sustained and we are forecasting full-year growth for 2016 to be at 5.7 percent," Jospeh Incalcaterra, HSBC economist, told Reuters.
"As this is an election year, most of the spending will be front-loaded. The key risk lies in a sharp deceleration of remittance inflows, which may be offset to some extent by a steady weakening of the peso," the analyst said.'
Elsewhere in Asia, China recorded 5.8 percent growth for full-year 2015 while Vietnam expanded 6.7 percent.
Outgoing Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the fourth-quarter growth of 6.3 percent showed growth will accelerate this year and that the economy has the momentum to grow up to 7 percent in the first half of 2016.
