Economic team sees signs of recovery

MANILA -- Economic and finance officials on Wednesday, July 8, 2020, said the Philippines is starting to recover from what they described as the “toughest economic crisis” to hit the nation.

However, second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) performance is still expected to be worse than the first quarter, considering that the economy was almost at a standstill during the implementation of complete lockdowns in key cities across the country in April and May.

Philippine GDP, or the sum of goods and services produced in the country, fell by 0.2 percent in the first quarter, the first contraction since the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

In a virtual forum ahead of President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) on July 27, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said in his presentation that “signs of recovery are emerging”.

He cited Bureau of Customs (BoC) revenues that surpassed the collection target for June and an uptick in manufacturing output.

“Despite the effects of Covid-19 on the overall trading environment, the BoC was able to surpass last month’s collection target by 4.4 percent,” he said. The Covid-19, or coronavirus disease 2019, pandemic has caused a global economic slump.

Department of Finance (DOF) Assistant Secretary Antonio Lambino II, in a press conference following the forum, said the BoC collected P42.54 billion in June, exceeding by 4.4 percent the P40.74-billion target for the month.

Acting Socioeconomic

Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, in the same press conference, agreed that the monthly data that they have been collating were starting to show improvements.

Aside from the increase in BoC collection, the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) also improved to “more normal territories in June”, Chua said. The PMI rose to 49.7 in June from 40.1 in May.

Chua also said the economy still contracted in May, but there was an improvement from the “deepest contraction in April”.

“All of this are being factored in. We are also seeing a significant part of the economy actually loosening up from the quarantine,” he said. /For full story visit sunstar. com.ph/davao