{"id":251655,"date":"2020-04-08T21:09:11","date_gmt":"2020-04-09T01:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=251655"},"modified":"2020-04-08T21:09:11","modified_gmt":"2020-04-09T01:09:11","slug":"ph-economy-well-prepared-for-covid-19-dominguez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/04\/08\/ph-economy-well-prepared-for-covid-19-dominguez\/","title":{"rendered":"PH economy \u2018well-prepared\u2019 for Covid-19: Dominguez"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III in Nonthaburi, Thailand on November 4, 2019. ALBERT ALCAIN\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) health crisis has hit the Philippine economy in a hard way but the country is \u201cwell-prepared\u201d to handle it, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

In a televised meeting with President Rodrigo Duterte aired over state-run PTV-4, Dominguez praised Duterte\u2019s economic policies for being able to withstand Covid-19\u2019s negative impact.<\/p>\n

Since the start of Duterte\u2019s term in 2016, he said the country\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP) grew on an average of 6.4 percent while tax collection increased, debts lowered, and inflation eased.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaganda \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0position\u00a0ng<\/em>\u00a0economy\u00a0natin<\/em>\u00a0so\u00a0kaya<\/em>\u00a0(Our country is in a good position so) even though we have bad luck to have this Covid-19, we are very well-prepared,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

However, Dominguez said the negative impact of the virus could result to a GDP growth of \u201czero or minus one percent\u201d this year.<\/p>\n

He said temporary unemployment could affect about 1.2 million workers, but stressed that this figure is comparable to the lowest unemployment rate the Philippines has experienced.<\/p>\n

The budget deficit is expected to increase from 3.2 percent to 5.3 percent, he said, admitting that government \u201cwill be spending more than we will be collecting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are spending more in order to save the people and make sure that they have food on the table during this time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also pointed out that the debt to GDP ratio is expected to increase from 41 percent to 47 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng<\/em>\u00a0debt to GDP\u00a0natin ho tataas<\/em>\u00a0from 41 percent,\u00a0siguro aabot ng<\/em>\u00a047 percent,\u00a0pero<\/em>\u00a0(Our debt will increase from 41 percent and will reach about 47 percent but) that is still very low in compared to our neighbors,” he said.<\/p>\n

Since Duterte\u2019s order has always been to manage the economy \u201cfor the welfare of the Filipino people\u201d, he said the government was able to ensure \u201cefficient\u201d tax collections and \u201cconservative\u201d spending.<\/p>\n

He expressed confidence in the government\u2019s financial capability to bridge the problems arising from Covid-19.<\/p>\n

Recovery program<\/strong><\/p>\n

The government is now working on a \u201crecovery or bounce back program\u201d which will begin by analyzing the health crisis’ damage to the economy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a survey and we have already received 44,000 respondents and we will analyze that\u00a0para matingnan natin kung saan ang malaking<\/em>\u00a0damage\u00a0sa<\/em>\u00a0tourism, manufacturing,\u00a0at saka anong mga<\/em>\u00a0companies\u00a0na natamaan nang masama,<\/em>\u00a0either small and medium enterprises or\u00a0\u2018yung mga<\/em>\u00a0big corporations (so that we can see where there is big damage in tourism, manufacturing, and which companies were hard hit, either small and medium enterprises or big corporations),\u201d Dominguez said.<\/p>\n

Moreover, he said government is also coming up with a program to continuously borrow more money to support the economy and the fight against the virus.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now,\u00a0tina<\/em>-tap natin\u00a0\u2018yung mga kaibigan natin sa<\/em>\u00a0(we are tapping our friends at the) ADB (Asian Development Bank)\u00a0at saka sa<\/em>\u00a0(and) World Bank and we will probably be borrowing mga USD5.6 billion from them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

If the funds were lacking, he said the government could also proceed to the commercial market since the country has achieved a BBB+ credit rating, the highest ever in the country’s history.<\/p>\n

He, meanwhile, thanked Congress for passing the Bayanihan to Heal as One act or Republic Act No. 11469 which authorizes Duterte to realign the national budget.<\/p>\n

The Finance chief assured the public that the government had enough funds, but had to spend it wisely.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to assure all our citizens at this point in time, we have the money although we have to realize\u00a0na hindi naman<\/em>\u00a0(that it\u2019s not) endless\u00a0\u2018yung pera na ito.<\/em>\u00a0So we have to spend it correctly,\u00a0hindi \u2018yung<\/em>\u00a0(not) for wasteful expenditures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Economic managers have set aside PHP1.17 trillion for its recovery program and fight against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a long breakdown of how we have this — this program. But mostly it was to provide subsidies for the low income — low-income families and workers of the small and medium enterprises,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In a public address on Monday, Duterte asked Dominguez to look for additional sources of funds to the PHP275-billion budget for the Covid-19 response.<\/p>\n

Under the Bayanihan law, the government has allocated a PHP200 billion emergency subsidy for about 18 million low-income families affected by the month-long enhanced community quarantine of Luzon.<\/p>\n

These low-income households will be receiving financial assistance between PHP5,000 and PHP8,000.<\/p>\n

The remaining PHP75 billion will be used for \u201chealth-related initiatives and other services.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) health crisis has hit the Philippine economy in a hard way but the country …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":236572,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251656,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251655\/revisions\/251656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}