BANGKO Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said Monday the eight-point program unveiled by the camp of presumptive president Rodrigo Duterte will be good for the economy.
“We can only say that the initial announcement of the eight-point program promises a continuity of the [resilient] economic growth that we have seen. I think the program translates into more growth, because it says there that macroeconomic policies will be continued and will impact on spending,” Guinigundo said.
He said Duterte’s program could also translate into more jobs as “the new administration is partial to attracting more foreign direct investment and enhancing the competitiveness.”
“So from monetary policy perspective, the general public can expect continued consistency of monetary policy with price stability, financial stability and of course balanced and sustainable economic growth,” Guinigundo said.
He said this would be supportive of the new administration’s emphasis on the need to achieve 7 percent to 8 percent economic growth for 2016 and beyond. He said it was a big challenge but “doable.”
Meanwhile, Bangko Sentral said money sent home by overseas Filipinos rose 1.5 percent in March to $2.42 billion from $2.39 billion a year ago, representing the slowest growth in six months.
Bangko Sentral said personal remittances, which included both cash remittances and non-cash items, increased 1.5 percent in March to $2.7 billion from $2.6 billion a year earlier.
Data showed that in the first quarter, cash remittances grew 4.4 percent to $6.55 billion from $6.28 billion in the same period last year, on sustained demand for local skilled workers abroad.
Cash remittances from both land-based and sea-based workers grew 5.3 percent and 1.5 percent year-on-year, respectively.
More than three-fourths of cash remittances came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Japan, Qatar and Kuwait.
Personal remittances also increased 4.3 percent in the first quarter to $7.2 billion from $6.9 billion.
“The steady increase in personal remittances was driven by the continued remittance inflows from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more,” Bangko Sentral said in a statement.