Despite BPO slowdown, PH economy grows 6.7%

Despite a slowdown in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry, one of the country’s key economic drivers, the economy managed to post growth of 6.7% in 2017. Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said the GDP growth last year was the fastest in the region after China’s 6.9% and Vietnam’s 6.8%. In the fourth quarter, the economy grew at a slower rate of 6.6%, a pace similar to that of a year ago but slower than the 7% expansion in the third quarter. Pernia acknowledged that the slowing BPO industry, worth USD23bn and employing 1.15 million people, was a “major contributing factor to this decline”.