The economy grew by 7.1 percent in the third quarter of the year, the fastest since the second quarter of 2013 at 7.6 percent – driven largely by the strong performance of manufacturing, trade and real estate, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced yesterday.

Our economic managers fully intend to move our economy to a higher growth plane between now and 2040. From 2017 onwards, we intend to maintain a GDP growth rate of 7% or more.

On a sustained 7% growth rate, the Duterte administration committed to bringing down the poverty rate from the current 26.5% to just 17% by 2022. We expect to see a shift from consumption-led to investment-led growth, driven by low inflation and interest rate.