The country’s economic growth returned to the positive realm in the second quarter of this year after expanding by 11.8% from -3.9% in the previous quarter. The second-quarter gains ended the five-quarter contraction of the domestic economy.
The development compelled economic managers to revise anew their growth assumptions for this year to 4-5%, given the impact of the movement restrictions especially in Metro Manila, which has experienced two enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) so far this year to following the Covid-19 cases upticks.
Department of Finance (DOF) Undersecretary Gil Beltran said the implementation of pandemic-related programs will be among the drivers of economists’ growth outlook for the country.
“Forecasters will keep a close watch of at the success of health interventions in curbing the virus when revising their forecasts.
They will be monitoring the growth of daily infections, which has risen to more than 13,000 and the vaccination rate, which has peaked at about 700,000 per day. The performance of health interventions will determine the GDP (gross domestic product) outlook in the quarters ahead,” he said in an economic bulletin.