Finance chief says economy to grow at low end of target

FINANCE Secretary Cesar Purisima said Sunday the economy would comfortably achieve 5-percent growth this year, which would be two or three percentage points off the government’s “aspirational target” of 7 to 8 percent.

“The 7-to-8 percent full-year growth is an aspirational target, a fighting target,” he said. “But our assumptions are based on a 5-percent growth, which we know we will hit comfortably.”

Purisima expressed optimism that the upper end of this year’s growth target would be reached despite a lower-than-expected 4.9-percent expansion in the quarter to March.

“To fulfill the goal of reducing poverty, improving people’s lives, and improving per capita income, I think we should target 7 to 8 percent, and we can do that,” he said.

“We have many opportunities. Tourism, business process outsourcing is very strong, and even agriculture is quite strong.

“We’ll continue to work on it because we like to be at that level. Clearly, we have to invest in fundamental changes and foundations so that we can not only reach it but sustain it.”

President Benigno Aquino III had earlier said the government would start pump-priming the economy through infrastructure projects in the second semester.

“We believe we can start pump-priming by the second half of the year because during the first semester, we had to institute reforms in various agencies,” Mr. Aquino said.

The National Statistical Coordination Board attributed the slower first-quarter growth to a drop in global trade and the government’s underspending on infrastructure.

That growth was lower than the 8.4-percent expansion in the same period last year, when election-related spending boosted the economy. –Joyce Pangco Pañares, Manila Standard Today