Source: www.sunstar.com.ph
THE country's chief planning agency said it is too early to recommend changes in this year's economic growth projections despite the higher-than-expected performance of the economy in 2010.
This came as Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. admitted that factors that heavily contributed to the 7.3 percent uptick experienced last year were no longer present.
These include election-related spending and heavy government expenses made to offset the effects of global financial crisis.
"It would be easier to attain the 2010 target than the 2011 target but we have not given up on that," Paderanga said.
However, he said the effect of the government's reforms such as in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) would come in "sooner rather than later."
Economic managers are yet to decide whether to revise the outlook for 2011, which assumed an economic growth of between seven and eight percent.
Last year's economic growth was the highest in 34 years since the 8.8 percent expansion recorded in 1976.
The economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), was fueled also by a strong fourth quarter growth that hit 7.1 percent or higher than the revised third quarter growth of 6.3 percent.
GDP is the sum of all goods and services produced by the economy in a given period.
Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone said the fruits of strong economic performance should trickle down to the poor, as he credited the present administration's "sound economic policies."
"The 7.3-percent economic growth of the country last year should trickle down to the ordinary people. Unless this figure is translated into actual job opportunities and food on the table of every Filipino family, this would mean nothing to them," he said.
Seasonally adjusted GDP grew three percent last year following a contraction of 0.8 in the previous quarter, while seasonally adjusted gross national product (GNP) accelerated to 2.9 percent from the 0.2 percent growth in the third quarter of 2010.
With this, per capita GDP or GDP per person rose by 5.3 percent in 2010 from a decline of 0.9 percent in 2009.
"Those rosy figures are nothing if we are not able to sustain them and if these are not translated into actual opportunities for our people," Evardone said.
Paderanga said risks to growth remain, such as the movement of commodity prices, particularly oil and minerals, and the disturbances in the global economy.
Evardone, meanwhile, said pump-priming activities during the first quarter of the year, billions in cash assistance to the "poorest of the poor" households and public-private partnership projects that would generate thousands of jobs could further strengthen the economy.
Last week, Dutch-owned ING Bank N.V. expressed confidence that the Aquino administration will record the highest average economic growth since 1986, which is at 5.3 percent from 2010-2016. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)
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