Philippines, Indonesia to lead ASEAN economies

Standard & Poor’s (S&P), the debt-watcher, has revised its 2013 gross domestic product (GDP) growth outlook for the Philippines to 6.9% from 6.5% in May.

“The more domestically-led ASEAN economies, headed by the Philippines and Indonesia, continue to outperform the more trade-dependent newly industrialised economies,” S&P said.

The revised projection now falls within the Philippine government’s 6 to 7% goal this year and is slightly higher than last year’s 6.8%.

S&P also said the ASEAN sub-region will continue to be the bright spot in Asia-Pacific, owing to the larger contribution of domestic demand to growth in these economies.

The debt-watcher noted the downward revision for its Asia-Pacific forecast was largely prompted by cuts made in China’s economic forecast.

S&P sees Asia-Pacific growth accelerating to 5.6% next year.