PH gov’t launches ‘bold’ plan to reverse slow Q1 growth

THE Philippine government has committed to accelerate spending on infrastructure and other big-ticket projects to reverse the slow growth at the start of the year, the head of the Duterte administration’s economic team said on Friday.

The “carefully crafted and bold expenditure catch-up plan” formulated by the interagency Economic Development Council (EDC) during its meeting on Friday will allow the economy to grow by more than six per cent this year, Finance Secretary Carlos G Dominguez III (pictured, Philippine Daily Inquirer) told a press conference.

Gross domestic product (GDP) growth fell to a four-year low of 5.6 per cent in the first quarter, below the government’s downgraded 6-7 per cent full-year target range, as the government underspent about one billion pesos ($19.1) per day on public goods and services due to the delayed approval of the 3.7 trillion peso 2019 national budget.

Dominguez during the EDC meeting said key infrastructure agencies presented their updated spending plans for this year designed to “substantially offset the lower spending in the first quarter resulting from both the budget delay and the election ban on public works”.

For this year, the government has programmed to spend a total of 3.77 trillion pesos, equivalent to 19.6 per cent of GDP and a tenth more than last year’s actual expenditures.

For infrastructure alone, the government will disburse one trillion pesos this year or 5.2 per cent of GDP, of which the bulk or 808.7 billion pesos will be for public projects.

Since the government already spent 778 billion pesos during the first quarter, it must spend 2.996 trillion pesos starting the second quarter, Dominguez noted.

In the case of infrastructure, the catch-up plan would allow implementing agencies to disburse 792.9 billion pesos between April and December as the first-quarter expenditures xpenditures were only 207.2 billion pesos, he added.

“The spending commitment of our two o main infrastructure agencies encies – the Department nt of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and nd the Department of Transporansportation (DOTr) – with an estimated commbined amount of f 8 0 3 . 1 b i l l i o n pesos, is enough t o c ov e r t h e national government’s i n f r a s t r u c t u re Dominguez said.

“Infrastr ucture disbursements from other agencies such as the Department of National Defense, the Department of Education and the Department of Health can further drive spending grow growth if they are able to accelerate implementation of their c capital outlay programmes a and projects. “T h e s e p r o g r a m m e s include the Ar Armed Forces of the Philippine Philippines (AFP) Modernization Pro Program of the DND, the sch school building programm programme of the DepEd and th the health facili ities ti enhanceme n t p r o - gramme of the DOH,” according to Dominguez. t a r g e t ,”

The previous week, Dominguez said he was not satisfied during that week’s EDC meeting as implementing agencies such as the DPWH and the DOTr claimed they could push through with projects but were unable to detail how.

But during Fr iday’s meeting, Dominguez said the DPWH and the DOTr remained optimistic that they could deliver on their respective commitments by accelerating infrastructure disbursements and implementation of projects.

“To enable them to attain their targets, it would require close cooperation and support of other government agencies by expediting the approval of permits and other requirements,” he said.

“Hopefully, no major weather disturbance will disrupt the implementation of the projects.”