After surging to its biggest growth in more than 30 years, the Philippine economy grew a feeble 3.7 percent last year. According to the National Statistical Coordinating Board, the expanded gross domestic product was below the lower end of the revised target from 4.5 percent to 5.5 percent for 2011.
As expected, the Aquino administration was quick to blame the weak global economy and the natural calamities hitting the country last year as reasons for the lower-than-expected growth.It promised to implement more measures to attain higher economic expansion this year.
Of course the Great Depression in the United States and the euro crisis that battered some economies in southern Europe had taken toll worldwide, especially in developing economies such as the Philippines, which sees those two markets as very indispensable fuel to keep the economy turning.
When the wheels of giant economies started to hit snag, we can only expect the weaker ones to crumble. That is because in this era of borderless trade, no country is safe when crisis hits the rich economies. Even the stable economy of China suffered some setback in view of the global financial crisis.
Economists have long been predicting that the country will experience economic instability on account of the worldwide financial dilemma. The problem, however, is the slow response by our economic leaders. Besides, no concrete measures have been put in place to lessen the impact of the global crisis.
Yes the slowdown in the Philippine economy has been largely attributed to bad external forces. But at least there should have been some internal measures implemented to boost local productivity and incentives to attract multinational companies fleeing from crisis-hit economies in industrialized world.
While some governments in other developing countries are busy outlining economic measures amid the global crisis, the Aquino administration has been pre-occupied with witch hunting. Instead of taking moves to strengthen the economic foundations, it became so busy going after the previous administration.
Now, too much politicking could make it hard for the government to improve the economy better in the years until the Aquino administration ends in 2016.