Lower growth forecast ‘doable’ — Lito

Newly installed Finance Secretary Jose Isidro ‘Lito’ Camacho said the other night that government’s revised growth forecast of 3.3 percent to 3.8 percent is "doable."

Camacho, who formally took over the reins at the Department of Finance (DOF) in place of Alberto Romulo who is now executive secretary, said a 3.3-percent to 3.8-percent gross domestic product (GDP) is "a fighting target."

While admitting that present conditions, including external factors such as the slowdown in the US economy as well as the troubled economy of Japan, the country’s major trading partners, will make it difficult to achieve the revised growth target, Camacho said government remains optimistic it can at least meet its macro-economic targets.

"We cannot give up too easily," said Camacho, who will now lead efforts to seek funds to fill up government coffers to pump up the economy.

Camacho outlined his priorities as finance secretary foremost of which is containing the government’s budget deficit at P145 billion, a difficult task considering that a lower growth forecast will mean lower revenues.

At the same time, he said there will be no more foreign borrowings for the rest of the year, adding that roadshows to be undertaken this year, will most likely be for the purpose of funding government’s requirements next year.

"We will be judicious in our borrowings, we have already taken care of funding requirements through the private placements," Camacho said, referring to the $500-million to $550-million private placements arranged for the Philippine government by foreign investment banks Credit Suisse and JP Morgan Chase.

Camacho said that while the National Government does not intend to tap the debt market further for the rest of the year, "it will take advantage of opportunities" if the terms are favorable. "If we find an attractive deal, we will take it," Camacho said.

The country faces a slower growth this year as its economic managers downscaled the GDP target for 2001 to a range of 3.3 percent to 3.8 percent, lower than the original target range of 3.8 percent to 4.3 percent.

The new growth target was decided over the weekend by the inter-agency Development Budget and Coordination Council (DBCC). GDP refers to the total final goods and services produced in the Philippines for a given period, excluding the remittances of overseas Filipino workers.

The GDP target was the only figure changed by the DBCC as it opted to stick by original macro-economic targets such as the gross national product which was unchanged at four to 4.5 percent.

The export target was also retained at four percent while collection targets of the Bureau of Internal Revenues and the Bureau of Customs remained at P408 billion and P120 billion, respectively.

The GDP was originally targeted to grow 4.2 percent this year but was downscaled to 3.8 percent in March, following the slowdown in exports which is the main driver of growth in addition to foreign investments.

The DBCC was prompted to revise the GDP target because of the slowdown in the economies of the country’s biggest trading partners, the US and Japan. – Rocel Felix