Senator Francis Escudero said the government should explore all possibilities to increase the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to maintain the debt-to-GDP ratio at a manageable level.
He noted that with six years of Duterte’s administration and six months of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., the Philippines has recorded P13.6 trillion in debt in 2023.
He warned that if the country’s borrowing is P2.3 trillion per year, the country’s debt could balloon to P27.4 trillion by the end of the Marcos administration in 2028.
“I hope we will keep that in mind as we go through the next four years and approve the budget for the succeeding years,” Escudero said, adding that increasing the GDP will mean that the debt-to-GDP ratio “will remain at a manageable 60 percent.”
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan earlier said the Philippine economy grew by 5.9 percent in the third quarter of the year, bringing the year-to-date economic growth to 5.5 percent.
Balisacan said this makes the Philippines among the best-performing economies in Asia.
“In the face of many domestic and international challenges, we have effectively implemented the appropriate strategies to sustain the economy’s forward momentum,” he said.
Balisacan said real GDP per capita already recovered and exceeded its pre-pandemic level.
He noted that most sectors have already reached higher levels than their pre-pandemic performance.
“While some sectors such as mining and quarrying, construction, transportation and storage, accommodation and food service, real estate, and other services have not yet fully recovered as of the end of the third quarter, this also implies that we can still look to these sectors as continued growth drivers of our economy, especially as we continue boosting efforts to promote tourism and ramp up the construction of major projects,” Balisacan said.