Government retains 2012 growth targets

MANILA, Philippines - This year’s growth targets – which have already been exceeded –  have been retained by the government, which wants to be “conservative” in their assumptions as the global economy remains fragile.

 “We kept the growth targets both for this year and the next,” Budget Secretary Florencio Abad told reporters after a meeting by the inter-agency Development and Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) yesterday. Abad is DBCC chairman.

The Aquino administration has set a five to six-percent growth target this year and six to seven percent next year. However, this year’s goal was already surpassed after the government reported that growth for the third quarter reached a surprising 7.1 percent.

This brought growth for the first nine months at 6.5 percent.

Socio-economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said a 6.7-percent growth could be achieved this year, way higher than the dismal 3.9 percent recorded last year as a result of weak exports and state under spending.

 “We want to be more conservative as there remains weakness in the global economy,” Balisacan told reporters.

Exports and imports are targeted to grow eight and seven percent this year, respectively. These assumptions were down from 10 percent and 12 percent seen in July, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said.

As of September, exports grew 7.7 percent while imports inched up 0.5 percent.

For next year, exports and imports goals have been reduced to 10 percent and 12 percent, respectively, from 12 and 14 percent forecast four months ago.

“We expect imports to pick-up next year,” Guinigundo said.

Net foreign direct investments (FDI), meanwhile, are expected to reach $1.5 billion this year, up from $1.2 billion “due to good feedback from investment promotion agencies,” the deputy governor said. FDI, which totaled $1.038 billion as of August, could reach $2.2 billion in 2013.

Remittances from overseas Filipinos are still forecast to expand five percent this year, Guinigundo said. Year-to-date tally of $15.571 billion already represents a 5.5-percent increase.