Malacañang has a positive take on a robust economy despite a report that the country posted its slowest economic growth in four years, said presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo.
“The growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 5.6 percent in the first quarter of 2019, a four-year low, was caused by the budget impasse and has now been resolved and a nearly flat agriculture output posting 0.8 percent, which contributes about a tenth to GDP, as a result of the adverse effects of the El Niño phenomenon,” he said in a statement.
Panelo was referring to the 5.6% economic growth in the first quarter of 2019, which the Philippine Statistics Authority reported as being the lowest in four years compared to the 6.5% in the first quarter of 2018 and the 6.3% in the fourth quarter last year.
The country’s GDP is also the slowest growth recorded in 16 quarters since the gross GDP growth was recorded at 5.1% in the first quarter of 2015.
“The economic momentum is on our side. The future looks bright despite the prophets of doom and the negative forces that try to mislead our countrymen into believing an opposite outlook, who however refuse to bite,” Panelo said.
He added that President Rodrigo Duterte and Cabinet officials were given a briefing by economic advisers.
“And the Palace therefore remains confident that we will still reach our full-year 2019 economic target of 6 to 7%,” he said.
“The delay in our infrastructure program because of the budget deadlock during the first quarter is now a thing of the past. Soaring inflation has been decisively addressed. We expect higher growth in the next few quarters as the Build Build Build Infrastructure Program starts to gather steam and domestic consumption, as a result of deflation, starts to pick up,” he added.
