MANILA – It is still early to think of any revisions in the 2022 growth target even with the Alert Level 3 implementation in several parts of the country, a National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) executive said Tuesday.
While Alert Level 3 movement restriction has been raised until end-January 2022 in more than 80 areas around the country, including the National Capital Region (NCR), NEDA Undersecretary Rosamarie Edillon said the decision is partly made as a “balancing act” for health and economic aspects.
“With respect to the target for the year, it’s still early days to be revising whether upwards or downwards because it’s just January 18. There are still a lot of developments that can happen, hopefully very positive developments on that,” she said during the virtual presser hosted by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) for the Task Group on Economic Recovery and National Employment Recovery Strategy (TGER-NERS).
The inter-agency Development Budget Coordination Committee has set a 7 to 9 percent growth target for this year and 6 to 7 percent for 2023-2024.
Authorities said Alert Level 3 in the NCR Plus, which covers the NCR and neighboring provinces of Rizal, Laguna, Cavite, and Bulacan, costs the economy around PHP3 billion every week.
Edillon said latest figures on the impact of the Alert Level system on the economy are “tamer” compared to the effects of the enhanced community quarantine and the modified enhanced community quarantine.
She said the improving vaccination rate in the country is a plus as it provides added protection of the population against the coronavirus disease 2019.
Edillon said the economy has experienced heightened movement restrictions in the past, thus, “we think we are now much better at managing these risks.”
“…There’s still enough time to catch up,” she added. (PNA)
