Senate
President Franklin M. Drilon today expressed concern about the country’s
ability to meet its target economic growth this year, which he said is being
dragged down by what continues to be an “alarming” trend of government
underspending.
The Senate leader’s
statement came after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and the
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) on Thursday reported the
country’s gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter of 2015 at
5.6%, which is way below the 6.4% it registered in the same period last year.
Drilon asked the
country’s economic managers if the target GDP of 7% to 8% is still within
reach, “when our present economic performance indicates otherwise?”
While he wishes to be as
optimistic as the country’s economic managers, Drilon said that it is becoming
more apparent now that the full year target of 7%-8% GDP is a “pipe dream.”
“The higher GDP target is
ideal, but at the rate things are going it would be unattainable. It would mean
the economy has to grow by at least 8.7% in the remaining quarters in order to
achieve the minimum growth rate target of 7%, which is impossible to achieve,”
said Drilon.
He noted that
even Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director-General Arsenio M.
Balisacan had earlier said that “the higher end of the 2015 goal would be
difficult to achieve.”
“I am therefore asking
our Cabinet members who lead the government’s economic cluster to conduct a
serious re-assessment of our current standing, including a realistic
description of what the country could and could not achieve for this year. Only
then can we move forward and come up with the necessary solution,” Drilon said.
He pointed to government
underspending as one of the key areas which require “immediate action,” citing
that government spending represents nearly 20% of the Philippine’s annual GDP.
“The
3.9% increase in government consumption in this quarter is a welcome
development, but it is obvious much more needs to be done in terms of fixing
issues on spending such as bureaucratic bottlenecks, especially in the public
infrastructure sector,” Drilon said. – END
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