Every investors, local and domestic alike are all excited
for the Philippines.
The Philippine Stock exchange recently reached breaking
records in history, PSEi inched up
by 2.04 percent, or 178.60 points, to 8,923.72 points- a record high. There is
a certain positivity, an upbeat in the way the Philippine economy is taking its
small strides in achieving a positive and prosperous status for the common
Filipino.
What was once
perceived as the weakness of then Davao City Mayor and now incumbent President
of the Republic Rodrigo Roa Duterte, is proving all his detractors wrong. The
President economic team headed by Trade
and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez, National Economic Development Authority
(NEDA) Ernesto Pernia, and Secretary of Budget Benjamin Diokno, seems to be
steering the country to the correct and right path.
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| Philippine economy on an upswing (photo credit to owner) |
Last, Wednesday
January 10, the World Bank projected that the
Philippines will continue to outpace its Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of
economic growth, based on its estimates for 2018 up to 2020.
The World Bank, a multilateral finance
institution sees the Philippine economy as consistently growing by 6.7 percent
from 2017 to 2019 before tapering off to 6.5 percent in 2020.
“The Philippines can sustain strong growth
through several policy reforms such as lowering of non-tariff barriers and
easing restrictions on foreign control and ownership of businesses, the World
Bank said.
The World Bank also took note of the country’s
rise in young working age population and should take advantage of this huge demographic
base by strengthening the quality and flexibility of its education system and
strengthening the ability of its workforce to adopt new technology.
On average, the World Bank expects Philippine GDP to grow by 6.6 percent from 2018 to 2020, higher than Thailand’s 3.5 percent, Vietnam’s 6.5 percent, Indonesia’s 5.3 percent and Malaysia’s 4.9 percent.
Higher growth was forecast for Cambodia (6.7 percent), Laos (6.8 percent) and Myanmar (6.8 percent).
Overall, the bank was very positive about economic growth in the entire Association of South East Asian (ASEAN) region. *
The World Bank earlier upgraded its 2017 Philippine growth forecast to 6.7 percent from 6.6 percent, as it took into account a stronger than expected third quarter expansion.
The US, Eurozone and Japan which are considered as Growth in advanced economies – is projected to moderate to 2.2. percent in 2018 from 2.3 percent in 2017 as central banks move toward policy normalization post-financial crisis. Growth in emerging market and developing economies – which include the Philippines – as a whole is projected to strengthen to 4.5 percent in 2018, as activity among commodity exporters continue to recover.
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