Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin Diokno
MANILA -- The Philippine economic growth is forecast to decline an average 0.3 percentage points this year because of the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.
In an interview after the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) event in Taguig City Thursday, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno said preliminary assessments show a possible slight reduction in domestic growth of about 0.2 percentage points in the first quarter, and 0.4 percentage points in the second quarter.
Diokno said the expected limited impact of the 2019-nCoV on domestic growth took into account reports indicating that “this virus is less deadly than the previous ones”.
Citing reports, the central bank said fatality rate of the latest coronavirus, the initial cases of which were traced in Wuhan, China last December, is about 2 percent to date.
While the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in China in 2002-2003 had a mortality rate of 9.6 percent, it said.
Latest reports said deaths from 2019-nCoV have reached 425 in China alone, higher than the 349 from mainland China during the SARS episode.
However, reports further said there were 632 recoveries among the people who contracted 2019-nCoV.
Diokno said the domestic economy is also “not expected to be greatly impacted” by a slowdown of the Chinese economy, the second largest in the world, because the Philippines does not have big exports to China.
He said the impact may be felt through the number of tourists and possibly on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). (PNA)
