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7% PHL growth target 'a big challenge' – NEDA
By KEITH RICHARD D. MARIANO, GMA News
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For the government to hit its economic growth projection for this year means a lot of catching up in the second half, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
"It's quite a challenge – a big challenge – to get the 7 percent," NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan told reporters on the sidelines of the signing of a joint memorandum circular on evaluation with the Department of Budget and Management on Wednesday.
The government expects the gross domestic product (GDP) to expand by 7 percent to 8 percent this year.
In the first quarter, Philippine output grew by 5.2 percent. This means the economy must expand by over 7 percent in the subsequent quarters for the government to meet its growth goal.
"The second half hopefully will pick up because the third quarter specifically is a low base. We're not giving up. We have to work harder especially on government spending," Balisacan said.
Gov't underspending
Banks, credit rating agencies and the International Monetary Fund have revised their respective growth forecasts for the Philippines this year, partly due to the slowdown in government spending.
In the first quarter, public spending totaling P504 billion was 13 percent short of the P582 billion budget while deficit amounting to P33.5 billion also missed the government's P98.1 billion target.
Problems in procurement planning partly caused the "high level" of underspending during the first quarter, said DBM Secretary Florencio Abad during the signing of the joint memorandum circular.
"Those agencies that have not managed to clearly define the specifications of their projects or arrive at reasonable costings for their projects... are those agencies that suffered serious delay in the budget execution," he added.
National evaluation
The National Evaluation Policy Framework outlined under the joint memorandum circular of the NEDA and DBM would supposedly improve the budget process including the timely executions.
"It's key for the resource allocation for the next round; it's key for determining whether reforms that were implemented are in fact worthy," said Abad.
The policy framework requires the systematic collection of information and the independent assessment of development interventions before, during and after their implementation.
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