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MANILA – The rollout of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) vaccine program in the country is expected to have a positive impact on the economy aside from protecting Filipinos from the infectious disease.
In a Palace briefing Thursday, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said the vaccine rollout will help in regaining the consumer confidence that was lost amid the pandemic.
Lopez said once consumers are more confident to go out, business confidence is also expected to improve.
“But even without the vaccine, we are proposing also --even earlier-- that if (Covid-19) cases continue to decline, we can consider continuing the gradual, calibrated, and safe easing (of restrictions) or reopening (of economic activities),” he said in mixed English and Filipino.
He added the economic team targets to further relax restrictions, either easing the community quarantine status in Metro Manila or easing age limitations, by next month.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has already approved to widen the allowed age group that can go outside their residences from 15 to 65 years to 10 to 65 years old.
However, President Rodrigo Duterte retracted the easing of age restriction due to the new Covid-19 variant.
“We paused because of the new variant,” Lopez said. “But if we see that the trend is stable, then we will continue the gradual easing of restrictions.”
The DTI chief said these efforts to bring back more economic activities aim to revive the economy to its pre-pandemic level.
Although there are already signs of recovery, economic indicators are still far from where it is before the pandemic, he added.
Economic output in the last quarter of 2020 posted an 8.3-percent decline from a 16.9-percent drop in the second quarter, which was the height of lockdowns.
However, this is far from the above 6-percent growth rate before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Unemployment rate also eased in October 2020 to 8.7 percent from a record-high of 17.6 percent in April 2020.
But this is still far from the 5-percent pre-pandemic level. (PNA)
