PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. remains optimistic the country can still reach its economic targets for 2025 with increased government spending as well as the projected rise in consumption during the holidays and exports during the last quarter of the year, according to Malacañang.
This, even if the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) already said it will be ‘very challenging’ for the country to achieve even the lower range of its gross domestic product target this year of 5.5 percent, due to disappointing economic growth in the third quarter of the year.
It noted the economy must grow by 6.9 percent in the last quarter to achieve at least the 5.5 percent GDP target this year.
Last week, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that GDP from July to September was only at 4 percent-the slowest pace since 2021.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said Marcos still has not ruled out achieving 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent annual GDP growth this year, despite the impact of the anti-corruption probe as well as the series of natural disasters, which hit the country in previous weeks.
‘The belief is still there. The belief is still there, so we can do it,’ she said in Filipino in a press briefing in Malacañang last Tuesday.
Citing the projection from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), she said they expect economic growth to pick up as the government spends its P1.31-trillion programmed budget from October to December.
The funds will be used for priority initiatives of the Marcos administration including health, education, and infrastructures.
‘The President’s order is to use the 1.307 trillion program budget correctly so that business sectors can see that the government is spending correctly and this will boost the economy and consumption and investment,’ Castro said.
Holiday spending and increase in exports, she said, will also help propel the country’s economic growth during the last quarter of the year.
DEPDev said the ongoing investigation on anomalous flood control projects, which started last August, has resulted in a slowdown in the progress in public works.
In October, DBM reported that capital outlays dropped P112.9 billion, which is 10 percent lower compared to the same period last year. It attributed the downturn to ongoing validation of public works by concerned government agencies.