The Philippine economy grew at a faster-than-expected rate of 6.6 per cent in 2012, making it one of the best performing economies in Asia, dpa quoted the government as saying Thursday. The gross domestic product (GDP) growth was better than economists' projections and the government's target of 5 per cent to 6.3 per cent. Growth in 2011 was 3.9 per cent. A strong performance by the services sector, led by trade, real estate and construction, fuelled the growth, said Jose Ramon Albert, secretary general of the National Statistical Coordination Board. "On the demand side, household consumption expenditure together with government spending, the recovery of capital formation and the remarkable performance of the external trade contributed to the healthy growth of the economy," he said. In the fourth quarter of 2012, GDP expanded 6.8 per cent year-on-year, up from 4-per-cent growth in the same October-to-December period in 2011. Gross national product, which includes income from abroad, such as remittances from overseas Filipinos, expanded 5.8 per cent in 2012, up from 3.2 per cent the previous year.
