Economic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga said the growth rate was within the government’s forecast of an expansion of 4.8 percent to 5.8 percent in the first quarter and supported by growth in agriculture and industry.

But he said public investment in infrastructure contracted as government agencies became more careful with their budgets.

The economy grew a blistering 8.4 percent in the first quarter last year.

To boost growth in the coming quarters, government will spend the rest of its budget in the remaining months of the year, address corruption, lower the cost of doing business, and put in place a development plan that tackles the high rates of unemployment and poverty incidence, Paderanga said.

The Philippines posted its highest annual economic growth of 7.6 percent in 2010.

The figure was revised from the earlier announced 7.3 percent after a recalculation using 2000 instead of 1985 as base year.

The agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing sector grew 4.2 percent in the first quarter after a contraction last year, boosted by a good harvest of rice, sugarcane and corn and strong demand for chicken.

Industry grew 7.2 percent on expansion of food and electronics manufacturing, private sector construction and gains by the mining and quarrying industries from higher global prices for metals and other minerals.

The services sector, the largest contributor to gross domestic product with a 55 percent share, grew by 3.7 percent.