The Latest: Australia-listed fintech firm Peppermint Innovation has secured a licence to operate as an Electronic Money Issuer (EMI) by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), the central bank of the Philippines. The EMI licence authorises the company to deliver e-wallet services through its bizmoto mobile application, allowing any Filipino to use

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• At Fitch Solutions, we maintain our forecast for real GDP growth in the Philippines to come in at 6.1% in 2022, despite the strong quarterly growth print of 8.3% y-o-y in Q122.
• We expect growth to moderate over the coming quarters on the back of high base effects, elevated commodity prices, tighter monetary conditions, and a slower

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• The Philippines will accelerate the decarbonisation of its power sector over the coming years, in line with energy policy shifts.
• We have revised up our forecasts for the non-hydro renewables sector, in line with rising investor interests and a rapidly-expanding project pipeline amid rising regulatory support, and see further upside

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• We maintain our expectations for the BSP to hike its policy rate by 75bps to 2.75% by end-2022, following the BSP’s decision to stand pat at its monetary policy meeting on March 24.
• Rising domestic inflationary pressures and interest rates globally will likely prompt the BSP to adopt a more hawkish stance over the coming months.
• Fur

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• At Fitch Solutions, we maintain our forecast for real GDP growth in the Philippines to accelerate to 6.5% in 2022, following the strong growth print of 5.6% in 2021.
• Although base effects will be less favourable for 2022, we expect growth momentum to gain traction on the back of further easing of Covid-19 restrictions and the

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• We at Fitch Solutions retain our view for Philippine elections in May 2022 to provide broad policy continuity despite current president Rodrigo Duterte’s decision to not run for the senate and his preferred successor, Bong Go, pulling out of the race.
• Current front-runners, presidential candidate Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr., and

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• The government's decision to remove the cap on foreign ownership in several industries including telecoms will improve the appetite for foreign direct investment in the Philippines.
• The country has a highly conducive environment for technological uptake but is held back by nascent digital infrastructure. Increased foreign investment

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• We at Fitch Solutions now forecast the Philippine economy to grow by 4.5% in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022, revised from 4.2% and 6.8% respectively.
• As domestic restrictions eased, real GDP rebounded from a contraction of 1.4% q-o-q in Q221 to growth of 3.8% in Q321.
• Recovering domestic activity will be the key driver of the economy moving

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• We forecast real household spending in the Philippines to grow by 5.1% over 2022, to a total of PHP11.1trn (USD218.0bn).

• In Q321 (latest data available), Philippines consumer confidence index remains relatively low at -19.3, but has significantly improved since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak. The unemployment rate also