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Friday, March 29, 2024

Dominguez sees growth exceeding 6% until 2022

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Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Thursday the Philippine economy will sustain its momentum and grow above 6 percent until the end of President Rodrigo Duterte’s term in 2022.

Dominguez, speaking before a forum organized by the Chief Executives Organization at Makati Shangri-La Hotel, said the economy was “ready to soar” after the strong 6.2-percent expansion in the third quarter.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III

He said the massive rollout of the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure program and the bold policy and administrative reforms undertaken by President Duterte were supporting the rosy outlook for “one of Asia’s powerhouse economies.”

Dominguez said the economy expanded by an average of 6.4 percent in the first 13 quarters of the Duterte administration.

“While most of the mature economies are expected to grow slower this year, the Philippines stands staunchly as a growth leader in this dynamic region of the world,” he said.

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Dominguez said that “against the headwinds of a broad slowdown in the global economy, we expect our economy to grow at around 6 to 7 percent this year. The country is strong and ready to soar.”

“Into the foreseeable future, we are confident of sustaining a 6-percent or better growth rate despite the headwinds buffeting the global economy,” he said.

Economic growth in the third quarter accelerated to 6.2 percent from a sluggish 5.5 percent in the second quarter, prompting the government to declare that the low end of the 6-percent to 7-percent target range for the full year was “very” doable.

The third-quarter expansion was faster than the 6-percent growth in the same period last year. This brought economic growth in the first three quarters to 5.8 percent, near the low end of the target range.

Major contributors to the economy in the July-to-September period were services which grew by 6.9 percent, industry with 5.6 percent and agriculture with 3.1 percent.

Construction posted the highest growth of 16.3 percent in the period, followed by financial intermediation with 10.9 percent, transport with 9.1 percent and trade and repair of motorcycles and other vehicles with 8.1 percent.

Dominguez said Filipinos were beginning to reap the rewards of a resilient, well-managed economy under the watch of President Duterte, as shown by the drop in the unemployment rate to its lowest level in 40 year, and the decline in poverty incidence from 27.6 percent in the first half of 2015 to 21 percent in the same period in 2018.

He said the  Philippines was expected to graduate to upper-middle income country ranking by next year, ahead of schedule.

Dominguez invited the global business leaders present at the Makati Shangri-La gathering to take a look at the opportunities that abound in the country.

“There are many areas where joint ventures and business partnerships will be fruitful. Today, it is much easier for joint ventures to quickly commence because of our comprehensive effort to improve the ease of doing business in our economy,” Dominguez said.

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