Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III
MANILA – The vaccination program and increased investment on the healthcare system are the primary factors that are helping buoy the Philippine economy from the pandemic, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said.
In a virtual briefing on Tuesday, Dominguez declined to give indications on any new economic growth targets, which he said will be announced by the inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) after its meeting on Wednesday.
He cited the impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) variants and the movement restrictions being implemented to address the spread of infections.
“We are facing a crisis unlike any other we have faced before. We have a virus that is mutating. And the mutations are quite severe so far in their new variants. So, I cannot predict what will happen in the future,” he said.
Dominguez said vaccinations, the country’s first defense, “is proceeding as originally announced.”
To date, the country has received around 42.6 million vaccines from March to Aug. 15 and the government has administered around 27.8 million doses, he said.
“The government is doing everything it can. Fortunately, we passed the tax reform bills early, which were meant to reduce poverty, which were meant to use the money to invest in infrastructure, etc. And that has been a very good buffer for us. Had we not done that, I do not know where we would be now financially,” he added.
Economic managers have revised this year’s growth target to 6 percent to 7 percent from 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent on account of the pandemic’s impact.
Growth, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), expanded by 11.8 percent in the second quarter this year, from -3.9 percent in the previous three months, ending the five-quarter contraction since the first quarter of last year.
Economic managers said growth would have been better if not for the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and four nearby provinces namely Bulacan, Rizal, Laguna and Cavite, collectively called NCR Plus Bubble from March 29 to April 11.
The ECQ was implemented to arrest the surge in Covid-19 cases, which posted record-high figures during the said period.
Another two-week ECQ in Metro Manila until Aug. 20 is implemented to address the rise in infections, especially after the discovery of local transmissions caused by the Delta variant.
Economic managers said the impact of the latest ECQ is expected to be smaller compared to the first ECQ in 2020 since there are more economic activities allowed this time than last year. (PNA)
