THE Department of Finance (DOF) expressed confidence that the country’s economy will grow by 7 percent in the last quarter of the year to hit the higher end of the government’s revised full-year GDP growth target at 5.5 percent.
Finance Chief Economist Gil Beltran said a 7-percent fourth-quarter GDP growth is “doable” given that the volume of production index for the manufacturing sector posted a double-digit growth in October of this year.
“So far, we only have number for October, for the manufacturing sector. It’s 24.7 percent up so because we have further opened the markets, I think the growth rate will be sustained,” Beltran told finance reporters on Wednesday.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III also said it is likely that the country’s economic growth will be within the revised target range set by the economic team for this year.
The Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) on Tuesday said it now sees the economy growing by 5 to 5.5 percent this year, higher than its previous assumption of 4 to 5 percent. The DBCC said they raised their assumption for the country’s GDP growth due to the increase in economic activity on the back of easing mobility restrictions as the number of daily new Covid-19 cases continues to go down.
“The country’s economic performance has exceeded our expectations in 2021. Our year-to-date growth presently up to the end of September is 4.9 percent, so there is a greater likelihood that our full-year growth will hit the revised target of our GDP growth ranging from 5 and 5.5 percent this year,” Dominguez said.
For 2022, Dominguez also believes the country’s GDP growth will be within the government’s target range of 7 to 9 percent with the reopening of the economy.
“Backed by a strong health-care system and the massive rollout of the vaccination program, we will solidify our recovery by reopening the economy to Alert Level 1 in January 2022. At the same time, to avert long-term productivity losses and restore more employment, we will resume face-to-face schooling most likely in January 2022,” he said.
For 2023 and 2024, the DBCC retained its growth targets at 6 to 7 percent.
Q4 growth could hit 7%, full-year GDP goal of 5.5% doable-DOF
Source: News Paper Radio
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