Population stunts Phl economy, says NEDA chief

Manila, Philippines – Director-General Arsenio Balisacan of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) believes a rapidly increasing population is the reason the country’s economic growth has not surpassed neighboring countries in Asia.

In an interview yesterday at the Senate, Balisacan said the country’s population, growing at 1.98 percent, is constraining a higher, long-term growth.

“What we would really want to see is that we break away from that high dependence or high contribution of our young age population in the total population,” he said.

Balisacan said the government would want to see that the growth in population is coming from the labor force.

“In other words, there’s demographic transition. Basically, what happens in our neighbors (is) they were able to reduce their fertility rate such that their young age dependence portion of population will decrease, and in the future will lead to a faster increase in the labor force and that contributes to economic growth,” he said.

“And then of course with a lower fertility rate, parents particularly poor parents would be able to provide better education, better health, better nutrition for their children and that would make them highly productive adults 10-15 years from now when they join the labor force.”

Speaking at a budget hearing at the Senate, Balisacan pointed out the need to shift the demographics of growth to the working age group from the high-dependency group or those that cannot work yet.

“The issue is higher rapid fertility rate and the pattern of population growth,” he said.

“There is a need to shift from the high dependency group to the working age group.”

Balisacan said this would increase the labor force, which would then contribute to faster economic growth.

During yesterday’s hearing on the proposed P2.006-trillion budget for 2013, lawmakers asked the government’s economic team if population growth and inflation prevent the economy from expanding by the desired 7 percent to 8 percent rates.

The latest data from the National Statistics Office showed the total population of the Philippines grew by 15.83 million to 93.3 million in 2010 compared to the 2000 population of 76.51 million.

In 1990, the total population in the country was 60.70 million. – Christina Mendez, Iris Gonzales, (The Philippine Star)