Philippine economy grows by 3.7% The Philippine economy grew at a slightly higher pace in the last quarter of 2011, as buoyant consumer spending and a surge in public construction helped offset the effects of typhoons and weak global demand that slowed expansion in many exporting nations across Asia. Gross domestic product rose by 3.7 per cent in the quarter to December, up from a revised 3.6 per cent in the previous period and 3.1 per cent in the second quarter, according to the National Statistical Co-ordination Board. Over the entire year, the economy grew by 3.7 per cent compared with the previous year's revised figure of 7.6 per cent, which was the highest in 34 years. The Philippines was one of the countries in Asia worst hit by the global slowdown. Last year GDP grew almost a percentage point less than the 4.6 per cent average for south-east Asia's four large developing countries, according to World Bank estimates. Cayetano Paderanga, the Philippines" economic planning chief, said the economy suffered more than its Asean neighbours because of its highly concentrated exports, which are dominated by semiconductors and electronic devices, and of which almost half go to the US and Europe, the regions at the heart of the global slowdown. Manufactured exports fell by 10.8 per cent in the fourth quarter, after dropping 14.8 per cent in the third quarter. Mr Paderanga said that the weak exports probably took away 2.2 percentage points from the country's potential growth last year. A sharp decline in government infrastructure spending since the new administration of President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino came to office in July 2010, until the third quarter of 2011, also contributed to slower economic growth. The previous administration ramped up cash outlays to unusual levels just before the May 2010 elections, and President Aquino embarked on a prolonged spending review process, which froze many government projects. Public construction fell by an average of 30 per cent from the same period the year before, for the first five quarters since Mr Aquino came to power. It was only in the fourth quarter of 2011 that public construction rose, surging by 49.4 per cent, after the economic planners put in place a disbursement scheme to facilitate spending. Mr Paderanga said the new administration is ready to accelerate government infrastructure spending after putting in place new processes to ensure the money would not be lost to wastage or corruption. We expect that this acceleration of public expenditures will continue well into 2012 and beyond. The hard work of reforming government processes and plugging expenditure leaks has been done," he said.