Salceda eyes 5.7% growth by March

Legazpi City—Albay Governor Joel Salceda said the economy will post a 5.7 percent growth rate in the first quarter, a leap from the 3.7% level last year which was less than half of 2010’s 7.6%.

He cited a confluence of domestic and external factors contributing to mthe favorable trend.

Salaceda, an economist and former presidential adviser, said the demand side domestic factors included the rebound in public spending and the disbursement acceleration program with the frontloading of the 2012 capital outlay coinciding with construction activities coupled with increased private, foreign and local investments due to confidence in the administration.

But he admitted that the impact of the Private-Public Partnership will be felt around the fourth quarter or more likely in 2013.

According to Salceda, the growth trend will be sustained by increased agricultural production resulting from the government’s irrigation upgrading and development and the benign La Nina phenomenon in the first half of the year.

He said the improved domestic outlook will be complemented by a showing of US economic recovery and Eurozone stabilization.

Salceda said slackened growth last year was worsened by severe weather conditions whose impact were offset by remittances of migrant workers and public sector underspending that gave way to a critical review of policy and redirection.

He said the the sluggish growth was firther dragged by the anemic US recovery, peaking Eurozone instability and China’s slowdown.

But Salceda said the seasonally adjusted Gross Domestic Product grew by 0.9% in the fourth quarter of 2011 versus 0.8% of the previous quarter, while the gross national income accelerated to 1.7% from 0.9% in the third quarter. –Florencio P. Narito, Manila Standard Today