DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez (file photo)
MANILA – The lower alert level at the start of the fourth quarter of the year and the reopening of more economic activities support the country’s recovery to the pre-pandemic level, the top trade official said.
Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said the economic recovery to the pre-pandemic level might not happen this year but in 2022.
“Year-to-date, our economic growth is at 4.9 percent,” Lopez said in Filipino during the Laging Handa public briefing Thursday. “Very likely that we will hit 5 percent growth for 2021.”
Based on his estimates, gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the fourth quarter should grow by at least 5.3 percent to hit the 5-percent GDP expansion for this year, and a 7.1-percent growth to hit a 5.5-percent economic growth.
“If that happens, by 2022, we only need 4.8-percent growth to reach the GDP level of 2019. That means, we can go back to the pre-pandemic level in 2019 even with only 4.8 percent growth in 2022,” he added.
Lopez said his agency has heard positive feedback from the business sector after the lower alert level in Metro Manila since October.
He said easing the National Capital Region (NCR) to Alert Level 2 has allowed more sectors to increase their operating capacity.
Businesses increased their revenues and more jobs were brought back into the labor market, he added.
The trade chief said the Philippines remains a top destination of foreign direct investments in the region, which inflows increased by 43 percent even during a pandemic.
Lopez said exports have rebounded by 20 percent from last year’s level and by almost 10 percent compared to 2019, which is a pre-pandemic year.
“Very good signs (of recovery). These are all inputs to GDP,” Lopez said.
Earlier, the government announced that the economy rose 7.1 percent in the third quarter of the year and revised upward the GDP growth in the second quarter to 12 percent. (PNA)
