MANILA -- Analysts from 26  private institutions have failed to correctly forecast the better-than-expected 7.1  percent  year-on-year growth of the economy in the third quarter, with the closest projection at 6.5 percent,  which was still off by 0.6 percentage points. 

Based on  forecasts by economists as  reported in the media, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Michael Ricafort of the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and Mitzie Irene Conchada of De La Salle University (DLSU) were closest with their predictions at 6.5 percent for gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the third quarter. 

Emmanuel  Lopez of  Colegio de San Juan de Letran  (CSJL) gave an 8-percent growth forecast, which was off by 0.9 percentage points. 

“The worst forecast was by (Euben Paracuelles  of) Nomura who at 2.9 percent  was 4.2-percentage points away,” DOF Undersecretary and Chief Economist Gil Beltran said in his latest economic bulletin. 

Also, Beltran said the  revision of  the second-quarter GDP growth by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)  to 12 percent  placed two forecasters—Jonathan Ravelas of BDO Unibank, Inc. and Rajiv Biswas of  IHS Markit as having correctly predicted  the economic growth rate during the April-June period. 

For the third quarter,  the forecasts were  in the median of 4.6 percent. 

“The wide range of outlook, reaching as high as 11.7 percentage points in the second quarter and going down to 7.5 points in the third quarter, shows high level of uncertainties. Such uncertainties clouded the outlook by analysts and  led many of them to understate their assessment of growth performance.To the extent that many of them also advise investors,  investors could have put on hold investment decisions by firms,” Beltran said.

The highest forecast was 10.4 percent by Robert Dan  Roces of Security Bank Corp., he said.

John Paolo  Rivera of the  Asian Institute of Management (AIM) predicted third-quarter GDP growth at 6 percent, while Alvin Joseph  Arogo of the Philippine National Bank (PNB) and Emilio  Neri Jr. of the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said the economy grew 5.8 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively,  during the same period, he said.

He said Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital gave a 5.5 percent forecast while Suhaimi Bil Ilias of Maybank and  Shreya Sodhani of Barclays predicted 5 percent; Jefferson Arapoc of the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), 4.8 percent; ANZ Research, 4.7 percent;  Moody's Analytics, 4.6 percent; Ruben Carlo  Asuncion of UnionBank of the Philippines (UnionBank), 4.6 percent,  Patrick  Ella of  Sun Life Financial, 4.5 percent;  HSBC Global Research, Makoto Tsuchiya of  Oxford Economics, and Ravelas of  BDO Unibank, Inc., 4.3 percent; Chua Han Teng of Development Bank of Singapore, 4.2 percent;  and  Bernardo Villegas of the  University of Asia & the Pacific  (UA&P) and 

Alex Holmes of  Capital Economics, 4 percent. 

Those who gave a forecast of below 4 percent were  Nicholas Antonio Mapa of ING Bank N.V. Manila Branch, 3.8 percent;  Goldman Sachs Economics Research, 3.6 percent; Biswas of  IHS Markit and Miguel Chanco of  Pantheon Macroeconomics, 3.5 percent, Beltran said.

Beltran pointed out that  the better management of COVID-19 risks through more directed, granular lockdowns, which allowed the economy to overperform in the second and third quarters,  and the  arrival of much needed vaccines and their  efficient administration “should be able to help in the safe and gradual reopening of the economy and bring back investor confidence.” 

But he said the country still needs to stay alert and not let its guard down to prevent a recurrent of more restrictive quarantines. 

The economy’s 7.1-percent expansion in the July-September period is among the highest third-quarter growths in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and East Asian region.

On a seasonally adjusted quarter-on-quarter basis, the economy expanded by 3.8 percent.

This indicates sustained recovery despite two weeks of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and a month of Modified ECQ (MECQ)  in the  National Capital Region (NCR) and nearby economic hubs, according to President Duterte’s economic team.  (DOF)