Message by ERNESTO M. PERNIA, PhD Socioeconomic Planning Secretary
The Philippine Economy: Achievements in 2018
Dutertenomics 2.0
January 28, 2019, 10:00AM
Philippine International Convention Center
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
I am happy to report that the Philippine economy remains among the best performing economies in Asia, growing by six percent or higher for seven consecutive years, and averaging 6.5 percent in the first 10 quarters of this administration.
We recently announced that the economy grew by 6.1 percent during the fourth quarter of 2018, bringing growth for full-year 2018 at 6.2 percent. Growth wasn’t as high as we had hoped because of slowdown in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.
Moreover, last year we experienced high inflation rates, which tempered economic growth via household consumption. The President’s issuance of Administrative Order 13, series of 2018, last September greatly helped in bringing down the prices of rice, fish, meat, vegetables, and fruits.
We are looking forward to the enactment of the Rice Tariffication Bill soon, as it will further reduce the prices of rice by PhP4.00 to PhP7.00. With this, we expect inflation to normalize back to a range of 2 to 4 percent this year and over the medium term.
Besides rice tariffication, NEDA, in 2018, has been among those on the forefront of several policy reforms.
One is the Ease of Doing Business Law, which will simplify application requirements and procedures for business opening or closure.
Another is the 11th Regular Foreign Investment Negative List, which liberalizes foreign participation in businesses. This should open up the economy to more foreign investments and new technology. Last year we also saw the enactment of the PhilSys Act, or National ID.
Further, we are looking forward to the passage of major bills, such as the Foreign Investment Act, Retail Trade Act, and Public Service Act.
On labor, based on the latest labor force survey, unemployment declined to 5.3 percent, which is within the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 target for 2018. Underemployment also declined to 13.3 percent, the lowest in over a decade. The number of Discouraged Jobseekers and Youth-not-in-Employment-nor-Education declined as well.
The government is also making definite progress in infrastructure development, which is one of the main thrusts of the administration. As of today, the NEDA Board has approved 61 big-ticket projects amounting to PhP2.73 trillion.
Of the 75 Infrastructure Flagship Projects of the Duterte administration, 44 projects are under various stages of implementation, 24 are under pre-investment study, and the remaining 7 are for review.
With global growth expected to slow down this year, we nevertheless expect the Philippine economy to remain resilient. With key reforms in place, we trust that the economy will up to the challenges, including domestic and external risks.
We assure you that government remains vigilant. We will continue to press for policy reforms and work to achieve our medium-term target, as laid out in the PDP 2017-2022, which is anchored on the President’s 0-10 point Socioeconomic Agenda.
Thank you, and again, good morning.
