The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
The 1st Butch Gamboa Memorial SPMJ Forum was held recently with BPI lead economist Emilio Neri, Jr. as the main resource person sharing his insights on the economic outlook for 2024, citing how these will impact the automotive industry at the PITX Conference Room in Paranaque City.
Other several BPI officials attended the event such as Loans chief Dennis Fronda and Joey Silvestre and Chamber of Automotive Industry of the Philippines president Rommel Gutierrez together with other representatives of various car manufacturers.
The Society of Philippines Motoring Journalists, led by its president Arnel Doria, thanked Jason Salvador for having the PITX management being the host for the first Forum of the group that was renamed Butch Gamboa SPMJ Forum in honor of its first president and founder. Doria also thanked the representatives of Toyota, Honda, Isuzu, Hyundai, Kia, AC Motors, Geely, and Jetour for taking the time to support the activity.
Neri is an economics and banking sector analyst for a former Monetary Board Member, was a consultant at the ADB, and a lecturer on monetary and fiscal policy at the University olobal GDPf Asia and the Pacific. He also led a team that consistently ranks at the top of surveys for analysts conducted by Bloomberg, Asiamoney, and The Asset.
Neri said that the Philippines will continue its growth as shown in its last year’s performance when it beat all its 5 other neighbors in the Asean region as the “fastest growing economy” with a commanding 5.5 percent GDP growth. The closest is Indonesia with 5.0, Vietnam with 4.2, Malaysia with 3.9,Thailand with 1.9, and Singapore with 0.7, in that order. “This growth is driven by resilient consumption and recovering government spending,” according to Neri.
Neri also disclosed the BPI forecasts as of December 2023 and these are: the GDP growth to hit 6.2 in 2024 from 5.8 of 2023; the inflation to go down relative further to 3.7 percent this year from 6.0 last year; the BSP policy rate to go down to 5.75 as against the 6.5 last year; and the dollar to peso exchange rate to go down to P53.80 from P55.37.