The future of the country looks “bright” as the full-year economic growth target will likely be achieved despite the “prophets of doom,” Malacañang said yesterday.
Even after the local economy posted a weaker-than-expected growth in the first quarter of the year, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said they expect higher growth in the coming months amid the intensified infrastructure spending and domestic consumption.
“President Rodrigo Roa Duterte and the Cabinet have been thoroughly briefed and apprised by our economic managers on the situation, and the Palace therefore remains confident that we will still reach our full-year 2019 economic target of six to seven percent,” he said.
“The economic momentum is on our side. The future looks bright despite the prophets of doom and the negative forces that try to mislead our countrymen into believing an opposite outlook, who however refuse to bite,” he added.
The local economy grew at its slowest pace in four years amid the weak spending caused by the delay in the passage of the P3.7-trillion national budget. The Gross Domestic Product grew 5.6 percent in the first quarter from 6.3 percent in the previous quarter.
Panelo explained that economic slowdown was partly caused by the delay in the passage of the 2019 national budget, which he claimed “has now been resolved.” He noted that a nearly flat agriculture output posting 0.8 percent amid the El Nino phenomenon also contributed to the slowdown.
But he assured that the delay in the government’s infrastructure program as a result of the budget deadlock is “now a thing of the past.” The government earlier operated on a reenacted budget until the proposed 2019 national budget was passed last April.
He said inflation spike has also been decisively addressed. Inflation slowed down to three percent last April, the lowest rate posted since January 2018.
“We expect higher growth in the next few quarters as the “Build, Build, Build” Infrastructure Program starts to gather steam and domestic consumption, as a result of deflation, starts to pick up,” he said. (Genalyn Kabiling)
