Duterte admin's fiscal policy fueled better-than-expected GDP —Diokno

The fiscal policy put in place by the Duterte administration helped fuel a better-than-expected GDP print, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno said on Thursday.

"In the past, the economy usually took a sharp decline after an election year. This is no longer the case: the variance is minimal with GDP growth 7.1 percent in Q3 last year versus 6.9 percent this year," Diokno said in a text message to GMA News Online.

"This is attributable to the expansionary fiscal policy and improvement in budget utilization. The outlook on the Philippine economy remains bright," the Budget chief noted.

In a separate statement, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) cited the GDP prints in 2004 and 2010, when the respective following years saw sharp declines.

"To illustrate, the third quarter GDP growth in 2004 (an election year) reached 6.1 percent before dropping to 4.2 percent the following year. In 2010 (also an election year), GDP grew by 7.3 percent in the 3rd Quarter before plummeting to 3.1 percent the following year," the DBM said.

Among the main drivers of the third quarter GDP growth is public spending, which was boosted by the administration's infrastructure program.

Data from the DBM showed disbursements for infrastructure and other capital outlays reached P142.1 billion in the third quarter, up 15.4 percent year-on-year.

Infrastructure disbursements also exceeded programmed disbursements at P137.8 billion.

The cash utilization ratio registered at 95.2 percent, better than 92.9 percent last year, suggesting that government agencies were able to spend cash allocations disbursed to them, according to the DBM.

"The Department of Budget and Management is also committed to firm up government disbursements as we aim for our full-year P2.909 trillion disbursement target," Diokno said.

For his part, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. brushed off concerns of an overheating economy as the GDP growth remains "within current potential" and will expand further as investment in physical and human capital ramps up.

"The strong Q3 GDP growth together with manageable inflation are in line with our expectations and validate current policy settings," Espenilla said. — VDS, GMA News