High-caliber experts from the government, the academe and the private sector weighed in on what lies ahead for the Philippine economy at the Pilipinas Conference 2018 organized by independent think tank Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute held recently in Makati.
High-caliber experts from the government, the academe and the private sector weighed in on what lies ahead for the Philippine economy at the Pilipinas Conference 2018 organized by independent think tank Stratbase Albert del Rosario Institute held recently in Makati.
For starters, it’s a dire picture in terms of the government’s attempt to make economic growth inclusive, said Calixto Chikiamco, president of Foundation for Economic Freedom. The country failed to achieve its target of reducing poverty incidence to 17.2 percent by 2015 and instead hit 21.5 percent. More recently, a Social Weather Stations survey revealed that 13.3 percent, or some 3.1 million families, “experienced involuntary hunger at least once in the past three months.” This is 3.9 points higher than the 9.4 percent recorded the previous quarter and the highest since December 2017, when it hit 15.9 percent.
Some aspects of the macro-economic picture aren’t as rosy either, according to Chikiamco. The country’s Gross Domestic Product growth rate has slowed down due to subpar agriculture and manufacturing numbers. Agricultural productivity is down and while manufacturing expanded by 4 percent in the third quarter of this year, it was a significant increase from the 10.1 percent jump recorded a year ago.
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