MANILA, Philippines – Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph Recto is optimistic that dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and an improvement in the performance of the export industry would help the country achieve the government’s latest economic growth projection for 2009.
“Consumer spending will improve in the remaining part of the year,” Recto said when asked of the chances of meeting the government’s latest economic growth revision.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC), the interagency group that sets the country’s economic assumptions, downscaled anew the country’s economic growth projection for 2009 to between 0.8 percent and 1.8 percent from the original target of between 3.1 percent and 4.1 percent on account of the larger impact of the global financial crisis.
Recto said the country would benefit from the continued inflows of dollar remittances from overseas Filipino workers who traditionally send money by June for the school opening and before December, ahead of the holiday season.
The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief said these factors would prevent the economy from slipping into a recession.
The revised economic growth projection would result in a larger budget deficit for 2009 of P250 billion from P199.2 billion.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said the government would borrow more to finance the larger deficit.
“Due to lower revenues, there will be an increase in borrowings. We are thinking of an increase in ODA (official development assistance),” Teves told reporters.
He also said that despite the adverse impact of the lower growth on revenue collection, the government would keep its level of spending to help us sustain modest economic growth.
In the first quarter of the year, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by only 0.4 percent. The economy shrank by a seasonally adjusted 2.3 percent from the last three months of 2008, its lowest level recorded for the past 20 years.
The 0.4 percent is significantly below the government’s first quarter growth projection of 1.8 percent to 2.8 percent and below the adjusted 3.9 percent GDP expansion recorded in the same period last year. –Iris C. Gonzales, Philippine Star
July 2025
Nutrition Month
“Give us much more than P50 increase
for proper nutrition!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO Constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar
to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations
against serious violations of
Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government (NUG)
of Myanmar. Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideosturesVideos
July
3 July – International Day of Cooperatives
3 July – International Plastic Bag Free Day
5 July – World Youth Skills Day
7 July – Global Forgiveness Day
11 July – World Population Day
17 July – World Day for International Justice
28 July – World Nature Conservation Day
30 July – World Day against Trafficking in Persons
Monthly Observances:
Schools Safety Month
Nutrition Month
National Disaster Consciousness Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 2: Cultural Communities Week
Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise
Development Week
Week 3: National Science and
Technology Week
National Disability Prevention and
Rehabilitation Week
July 1-7:
National Culture Consciousness Week
July 13-19:
Philippines Business Week
Week ending last Saturday of July:
Arbor Week
Daily Observances:
First Saturday of July:
International Cooperative Day
in the Philippines
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