(PNA file photo) MANILA - Government expenditures and recovery of the private sector will help drive the Philippine economy to grow by 6.5 percent this year, an analyst said Tuesday. Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) chief economist, Dr. Hoe Ee Khor, said in a virtual briefing that the growth outlook considered the impact of the additional coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) variants on the economy. "The Philippine economy has really seen a large output gap so we expect that private spending will bounce back very rapidly once the economy opens fully. We are quite confident that this six and a half percent growth can be achieved this year. And we expect growth of another 6.5 percent next year," he said. The regional macroeconomic surveillance organization's growth projection for the economy is lower than the government's 7 percent to 9 percent growth assumption while its 2023 growth forecast is within the economic managers' 6 percent to 7 percent target.