Gov’t hopes for 7% GDP growth in Q2

The government hopes for an economic growth of 7.0 percent in the second quarter of the year, banking on higher spending, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said Monday.

“We are certainly hoping for 7 percent, because of no more underspending and so much more spending on capital equipment and our ‘Build, Build, Build’ program,” he said during a press conference in Manila.

Department of Budget and Management (DBM) data showed that spending on infrastructure development grew by 26 percent to P58.1 billion in May.

Victor Abola, economics professor at the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), said the economy may even exceed 7.0 percent in the second quarter.

“That’s my forecast for the second quarter. It may even exceed it, but I’m just being conservative,” he said.

In the first five months of 2018, infrastructure spending was up 42.4 percent at P280.8 billion from the P197.2 billion a year earlier.

“There’s a lot of activity, there’re so many projects that we’re finishing from the previous administration,” Pernia said.

In the first quarter of the year, the Philippine economy grew by 6.8 percent. It grew by 6.7 percent in the second quarter of 2017.

The government targets the economy growing by 7.0 to 8.0 percent in 2018 to 2022.

“Obviously, infrastructure spending is a big driver. We’ve seen very strong infrastructure growth in the first two months of the second quarter—April and May—and that means the government is able to ramp up the spending,” Abola said. —VDS, GMA News