{"id":8013,"date":"2019-05-09T20:37:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T12:37:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/?p=8013"},"modified":"2019-05-11T23:12:23","modified_gmt":"2019-05-11T15:12:23","slug":"%ef%bb%bfslower-gdp-affirms-undue-pep-over-credit-rating-upgrade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/%ef%bb%bfslower-gdp-affirms-undue-pep-over-credit-rating-upgrade\/","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffSlower economy affirms undue hype over credit rating upgrade"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sign of unsound economy<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Slower\ngross domestic product (GDP) growth during the first quarter of 2019 belies any\nclaim of a healthy Philippine economy. Research group IBON stressed that the\nDuterte administration\u2019s enthusiasm over the recent credit rating upgrade that\nthe country got is unwarranted. Instead of hailing business-biased programs,\ngovernment should look to more sustainable undertakings in order to push\ngenuinely inclusive economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nPhilippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that Philippine GDP grew at its\nslowest in 16 quarters at 5.6% in the first quarter of 2019 since the 2015\nfirst quarter GDP growth rate of 5.1%. This is slower than the 2018 first\nquarter GDP growth of 6.5 percent. Trade and repair of motor vehicles,\nmotorcycles, personal and household goods and financial intermediation were the\ndrivers of the first quarter growth with faster rates, but the rest of the\neconomic sectors slowed down. Agriculture had stagnant growth in the last three\nyears, while manufacturing and real estate registered the slowest first quarter\ngrowth in the past decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

News\nof the economy\u2019s slower growth came at the heels of a credit rating upgrade of\nBBB+ from Standard & Poor\u2019s, which the Duterte administration attributes to\nits economic reforms. The administration\u2019s economic team is also hopeful that\nwith the credit rating upgrade the country could encourage and attract more foreign\ninvestments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

IBON\nhowever said that the slowdown proves the Duterte administration\u2019s economic\ncenterpiece to be unsustainable, all the more rendering the credit rating\nupgrade to be meaningless. The unsustainability of the infrastructure program, Build\nBuild Build, IBON pointed out, was underscored by the slowdown of the\nconstruction and real estate sectors, which the National Economic and\nDevelopment Authority (NEDA) attributed to the delayed enactment of the 2019\nnational budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction\nslowed significantly to 3.9% in the first quarter of 2019 from 10.2% in the\nsame period last year. A closer look reveals that public construction nosedived\nfrom 22.6% to -8.6% during the same period. Private construction, meanwhile, was\nslightly faster from 8.1% to 8.6% within the same period, however registering a\nsubstantial slowdown from 19.3% in the fourth quarter of 2018. Real estate,\nrenting and business activities continued its slowdown from 8.7% in the first\nquarter 2016 to 4.1% in the first quarters of 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IBON\nadded that the budget delay, which reportedly stifled government spending as\nagencies were compelled to operate on a reenacted 2018 budget, even puts\ngovernment\u2019s determination for rapid growth into question. Any government that\nis solid on its development vehicle, in this case, an ambitious infrastructure\nprogram, would not waste time to promptly allocate the needed budget for it,\nsaid the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IBON\nsaid that instead of focusing on the infrastructure program to boost GDP growth,\nloans, investments, and even employment, government should exert greater\nefforts towards sustainable sources of inclusive growth. The group noted that\ncontrarily, the country\u2019s production sectors are stagnant or on a continuous\nslowdown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

IBON\nnoted that growth in agriculture, fishery, and forestry fell to 0.8% in the\nfirst quarter of 2019 from an already negligible 1.1% in the first quarter of\n2018. Manufacturing slackened further to 4.6% from 7.3% in the same period. Agriculture\nregistered 1.7 million jobs lost from January 2018 to January 2019, the largest\ncontraction of agriculture jobs across all January rounds post-Marcos\nadministration. Manufacturing created only 110,000 jobs in the same period,\nonly a fourth of the seasonal jobs created in construction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

IBON\nreminded that government\u2019s bid for the pro-business Build Build Build and for foreign\ninvestments will not bring long-term benefits to the country unless accompanied\nby a solid agriculture and industry centered development plan. Without boosting\nthe country\u2019s production base, sustainable and inclusive economic growth will\nremain elusive, said the group.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n


<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sign of unsound economy Slower gross domestic product (GDP) growth during the first quarter of 2019 belies any claim of a healthy Philippine economy. Research group IBON stressed that the Duterte administration\u2019s enthusiasm over the recent credit rating upgrade that the country got is unwarranted. Instead of hailing business-biased programs, government should look to more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[14],"tags":[373,2016,2012,347,364,144,1222,134,696,116,165],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8013"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8013"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8024,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8013\/revisions\/8024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/tl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}