Philippine economy able to withstand impact of global uncertainties: official
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E-mail Xinhua, March 15, 2022
MANILA, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Philippine Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua voiced confidence on Tuesday that the Philippines' economy will continue to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic despite the impact of global uncertainties triggered by the situation in Ukraine.
"We believe we have a very strong domestic economy that can withstand that," Chua told a press conference, adding that domestic demand boosted by the reopening of economy will cushion the impact of international uncertainties, paving the way for a targeted 7 to 9 percent gross domestic product growth for 2022.
"Our recent shift to alert level 1 in many parts of the country is estimated to generate an additional 9.4 billion pesos (roughly 179 million U.S. dollars) per week of economic activity. Despite the ongoing global tensions, we remain confident that the economy will recover to a pre-pandemic level within the year," Chua said.
Chua, a member of the economic team of the Philippine government, supports placing the entire country at alert level 1 against COVID-19, the lowest on a scale of 5, in order to rev up the economy.
He said lowering the alert level will add 16 billion pesos (roughly 305 million U.S. dollars) in output per week. "We have a very strong potential to grow on the domestic front."
The government economic team believes that the global tension is "temporary in nature." "It will affect some people and some sectors, and we are ready to support the affected sectors," Chua said, referring to the government subsidies for transport and agriculture sectors.
The most important thing is that "we build on our domestic base. We are still far from achieving the normal life that we last saw in 2019," Chua added.
The Southeast Asian country saw its COVID-19 caseload continue to fall, averaging around 500 new cases daily. "All areas in the country are now considered low-risk," Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said in a separate online briefing.
Vergeire said that the government is discussing how to ease the pandemic restrictions further to allow the economy to recover.
The Philippines has so far reported over 3.67 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 57,625 deaths. Over 64.6 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so far. Enditem
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