Malacañang on Friday welcomed the growth of the country’s gross domestic product in the third quarter of this year, saying it demonstrates the Duterte administration’s “competence” in economic matters.
GDP growth during the July to September jumped to 6.2 percent, faster than the 6-percent expansion in the same period last year and the average 5.5-percent growth in the first half, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo lauded the country’s economic managers for maintaining 6 percent GDP growth or above “fighting target.”
“While it is public knowledge that the hallmark of this administration is its unmatched advocacy for peace and order, this development illustrates its competence in other fields, such as protecting the health of the nation's economy notwithstanding inevitable setbacks it has encountered in the past,” he said.
Across all sectors, services posted the fastest growth with 6.9 percent, industry has 5.6 percent, while agriculture has 3.1 percent, as recorded by the national statistics agency.
With the country's projected population reaching 108.3 million in the third quarter of 2019, per capita GDP grew by 4.5 percent, as government expenditures picked up after the delay of this year’s national budget.
The country is back on track with President Rodrigo Duterte’s socioeconomic goal, including the objective to lower poverty incidence to 14 percent by the end of the his term, Panelo said.
The PSA attributed the growth to trade and repair of motor vehicles, personal and household goods, and financial intermediation.
The country’s GDP outpaced those of India, Indonesia, and China.
The GDP is an economic indicator which accounts for all the finished goods and services produced within the country in a specific period.
The government targets a 6 to 7 percent economic growth this year that will be met according to authorities, through slower inflation rate combined with easier monetary policy.
Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara, who chairs the Senate finance committee, said the government’s “spending catch-up plan” will be key to meet the country’s GDP growth target.
“The contribution of the government is to step up its spending, meaning actual payment for goods and services delivered,” Angara said.
He also urged government agencies to be aggressive in spending their budget for the remaining period of the year.
“I hope that we will be doing all the smart moves in the last two months that would allow us to meet the finish line goal of 6 to 7 percent growth,” Angara said.
Angara, however, said that the government’s “spending catch-up plan” will be key in meeting the full-year GDP growth target of 6 to 7 percent, Sen. Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee said today, following the release of the 3rd quarter economic scorecard.
Angara said the contribution of the government is to step up its spending, meaning actual payment for goods and services delivered. “I am speaking of disbursements and not just obligation of funds.”
He said “a distinction between the two must be made because obligations are mere commitments while disbursements are payments made.”
ON the otherhand, Sen. Joel Villanueva said the growth of our economy in the third quarter of this year, buoyed by industries such as construction and financial intermediation among other factors, is a welcome development as it also leads to the creation of jobs for Filipinos.
“We note that with billions of infrastructure projects in the pipeline, the construction sector will need more workers–skilled workers,” he said.
“We encourage our tech-voc sector to continue its aggressive push for students to be trained and certified to support the rise of the construction industry,” he added.
He said jobs are right on the horizon for TESDA certified workers in the next three to five years.
Angara also welcomed the uptick in “public construction spending which is good news because it means that we have somewhat recovered from the delay of the passage of the national budget.
He noted the gains in farm output "but we should not be contented with the numbers.”
“The challenge is to prevent any backsliding and stop the ASF, the low copra prices and the dip in palay yield from pulling down the agriculture performance," Angara said.
Angara has called on all government agencies to be aggressive in spending their budget for the remaining period of the year.
“I hope that we will be doing all the smart moves in the last two months that would allow us to meet the finish line goal of 6 to 7 percent growth," he added.
"As our economic manager said, there will be a last quarter spurt, buoyed up in part by the holiday spending and OFW remittances," the senator said.
"The fact that our third quarter expansion outpaces China, India and Indonesia can only be good news for all of us," Angara exclaimed.
“But this is like a UAAP game. This is just a quarter tally. The score that matters is the one for the full year but we are very optimistic about it," he said, stressing that the economic managers seem to be successful in pushing the right buttons.
