ATTRACTING INVESTMENTS. President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday (Jan. 27, 2023) emphasizes the need to attract more foreign investments to sustain the Philippines' economic growth. Marcos made the remark in a video message uploaded on the Presidential Communications Office's (PCO) official Facebook page, as he expressed elation over the country's 7.6-percent annual growth in 2022. (Screenshot from video shared on PCO's Facebook)
MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Friday emphasized the importance of attracting more investments to sustain the growth momentum of the Philippine economy.
This, after Marcos expressed elation over the country's 7.6-percent annual growth in 2022, exceeding the government's 6.5 to 7.5 percent growth assumption for the year and the highest after the 8.8 percent in 1976.
"We are happy to receive the news that our growth rate for the year 2022 exceeded all expectations even by the estimates of the international financing institutions and we are holding at 7.6 percent,” Marcos said in a video message uploaded on the Presidential Communications Office's (PCO) official Facebook page.
"However, for 2023, we still have the problem of inflation, which means there is still a problem of certain sectors of society and of the economy [which] have yet to enjoy the benefits of that growth. And that’s why inflation is something that we are attending to," he added.
Marcos said his administration is expecting that the inflation rates, especially for agricultural products, will come down "within the end of the second quarter" of 2023.
Citing the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas' forecast, Marcos also hoped that the inflation level would go down to four percent by the third or fourth quarter of this year.
Marcos also expressed confidence that the country is heading in the "right direction" when it comes to realizing its bid for economic prosperity.
Attracting foreign investments, Marcos said, would sustain the country's economic growth rate and development.
“We must maintain, however, that growth rate and that is why it has become so important for us to go out and to attract investments into the Philippines because that is the only way for economic activity to increase and therefore to grow the economy,” Marcos said.
“So I think that we are headed in the right direction. We still have some interventions that we will have to apply. But nonetheless, we are weathering the shocks on the international economic situation and we are starting to see that the economy is moving in the correct direction,” he added.
On Thursday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) posted a growth of 7.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022, resulting in a 7.6 percent full-year growth.
The PSA noted that the main contributors to the fourth-quarter growth were wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; financial and insurance activities; and manufacturing.
Among the major economic sectors, industry and services posted positive growths in the fourth quarter of 2022, with 4.8 percent and 9.8 percent, respectively, according to the PSA report.
For the full-year growth, the industries that contributed the most to the annual growth were wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles; manufacturing; and construction.
Marcos' economic team conducted its third Philippine Economic Briefing (PEB) in Europe to present the economic situation and investment opportunities in the Philippines.
The PEB Europe leg covers Frankfurt in Germany and London in the United Kingdom.
During the PEB's London leg on Thursday, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman encouraged more European investors to invest in the country, assuring them that the Philippines is "on track" to achieve its economic agenda. (PNA)
