Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the lower end of the 2023 growth target range of 6 percent to 7 percent “remains achievable.”
Diokno said in a message over the weekend an aggressive catch-up plan would do the trick for the second half of the year.
“[The] 6.0 percent GDP growth target for 2023 remains achievable… An aggressive catch [up] plan for infrastructure projects [roads, bridges, airports, seaports, power, water, irrigation, telecommunications facilities, digitalization, school buildings, housing and others], quicker response by GOCCs [government-owned and -controlled corporations], and strong and deliberate spending by resource-surplus local governments are essential parts of the solution to the relatively weak second-quarter growth performance of the Philippine economy,” Diokno said.
He said one of the advantages of the Philippine economy was its less dependence on exports, as some of its ASEAN neighbors and its growth for the past several years was mainly consumption based.