Q Has the impact of the international slowdown been more severe than expected?
A Yes, both in the effects on growth and inflation. We were hoping that the slowdown in GDP growth would not be as sharp as we saw during the first two quarters. We were hoping growth would still be between 5% and 5.2% but it was 4.6% during the first semester. We also reached double-digit inflation caused by high fuel and commodity prices, especially rice. The Philippines is sensitive to the price of rice.
