PHILIPPINE economic growth inched up to 6.5 percent in the second quarter, overtaking Vietnam's 6.2 percent and Indonesia's 5.0 percent growth rates.
"This puts the country as either the second or third fastest growing major Asian economy, next only to China whose growth rate is 6.9 percent in the second quarter," Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said in a statement.
He said Malaysia and Thailand are expected to post lower growth rates for the same period.
For the first half of this year, gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.4 percent, with manufacturing, trade and real estate as main growth drivers, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.
"We are well on track to meeting our full-year target growth of 6.5 to 7.5 percent," Pernia said, adding the economy would need to grow by 6.5 percent in the second half "to meet at least the lower bound of our full-year target."
Industry recorded the fastest growth at 7.3 percent while services slowed down to 6.1 percent from 8.2 percent in the same quarter last year, the PSA said in a separate statement. Agriculture recovered with a growth rate of 6.3 percent. (VoxPop Philippines)