(FAST GROWTH. NSCB Secretary General Dr. Romulo A. Virola tells the press that the economy expanded by 7.3% in 2007, the fastest growth in 31 years. In photo left to right: NSCB-ESO Director Raymundo J. Talento, Dr. Virola, Secretary of Socio-Economic Planning and Chair of the NSCB Board Mr. Augusto B. Santos and NEDA-NPPS OIC-Director Myrna B. Asuncion. Official photo from NSCB.)
What do you know, while we were all worrying ourselves to depression, the economy grew 7.3% in 2007 – the fastest growth in 31 years.
Read this breaking news from INQUIRER.net:
MANILA, Philippines — (UPDATE 2) The economy expanded by a forecast-beating 7.3 percent in 2007, its fastest pace in 31 years, boosted by the services sector, the government said Thursday.
“In an environment of benign inflation, low interest rates and a strong peso, the Philippine economy turned in its best performance in 31 years,” said Romulo Virola, the secretary-general of the National Statistics Coordination Board.
“On the demand side, increased consumer spending, investments in public and private construction, government spending and exports of non-factor services largely contributed to the remarkable performance of the economy.”
Following the strong performance last year, Economic Planning Secretary Augusto Santos said the government is maintaining its forecast that growth will slow to 6.3-7.0 percent in 2008 given the expected slowdown in the US, the biggest market for Philippine exports.
“What we are saying is that if there is a recession in the US, then that will affect us, but the situation is closely being monitored,” he told a media briefing.
Santos said the world’s largest economy is unlikely to slip into recession.
“As we see it, there may in fact be no recession in the US given the stimulus package of the Bush administration.”
Here’s how our growth rates look since 2000:
2000 — 4.38
2001 — 1.76
2002 — 4.45
2003 — 4.93
2004 — 6.38
2005 — 4.87
2006 — 5.45
2007 — 7.3
Before the announcement, analysts were expecting a 50 basis point cut in the central bank’s policy rates. Now, they are saying it could be smaller at 25 basis points. We will know for sure in a few hours. A bigger cut would have been better for stocks, not so good for bonds, but investors can’t really complain with the 7.3% figure.
Of course, economists will be reacting all over the place in the next few days. There were several significant upward revisions in the quarterly growth rates. The third quarter 2007 figure was revised upwards by 1.0 percent, there was a 1.7 percent rise in the second quarter and 2.5 percent revision in the first quarter. Economists in Ateneo de Manila and the University of the Philippines will have a field day commenting on how long it took the government to report on these revisions.
Here’s hoping our net worth grew as much, or more than 7.3% in 2007. Even better if our emotional and wellbeing balance sheets register high net worth. Have fun today and enjoy each moment!
February 1st, 2008 at 11:41 pm
Neri asks SC to stop Senate arrest order
Beleaguered Commission on Higher Education (CHEd) chairman Romulo Neri filed a petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court (SC) Friday in a bid to stop the enforcement of an arrest order issued by the Senate
++++++++++++++++
Only in the Philippines can do something like this. If the court going to stop the arrest order of Neri, Its only prove that there is no rule of law; In the philippines but mobsterer law.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:25 pm
ano ba ang problema mo salina?7.3 gdp ay positibong balita iyan its 1000 times better than politic news,please dont feel bad about it,its real and if we can sustain it good for all of us,including you.
February 1st, 2008 at 3:39 pm
i also believe that the economy is growing fast. just not fast enough to be felt by everyone. but if this growth can be sustained, then more people will be able to benefit from it. that’s a big if though. we don’t invest much on human capital, which is bad because that’s the only way we can achieve long-run growth and raise everyone’s standard of living. if so much money is coming in, it’s high time that the government spend a larger share of it in education. otherwise, high annual gdp growth rates like these will forever be a fluke.
February 1st, 2008 at 10:29 am
People, people, people… Look at the BIG Picture.
The economy is improving, just look at the facts and figures and don’t take any politicians word for it. Just plain hard facts. We are on the right track.
We have a lot of Jobs circling around, if there weren’t any jobs available then the Classified Ads/Job Listing Sections would be empty! The problem is, a lot of people are too lazy to even attempt to improve their credentials to actually qualify for these jobs.
A boost in the economy does NOT automatically translate to poor people miraculously getting money (Juan de la Cruz waiting for the apple to fall instead of grabbing it) or jobless people miraculously getting jobs.
It is still the SOLE RESPONSIBILITY of the individual to fend for himself. Don’t blame the government, the president or anyone else for your shortcomings.
We have an epidemic in this country called “VICTIMISM”, everything that happens to us we automatically think of ourselves as victims!
Why don’t we take responsibility of our own welfare and finally do something about it instead of whining and forever complaining!
Wake up People!
February 1st, 2008 at 8:21 am
yippieyuppie, that’s a good question and one that politicians like Mar Roxas maximize to the hilt. The answer to your question is that economic growth take some time to trickle down to the bottom tier of the population. Let’s say in a small town, there’s a major bridge construction, the people who will benefit first are the wealthy businessmen because they can bring their goods to and from the town faster and at less cost. these other benefits will then later on be felt by the poorer sections of the society in that town. same with the whole country. Former president FVR tried to make a PR spin that his administration would go for the “bibingka” effect, meaning they would attack both at the top and at the bottom by providing social services for the poorest to help them benefit immediately from the higher GDP growth rates during his term. So far as I know, no administration has ever done that to the satisfaction of everyone in the country.
Being a member of the media, I am trained to be pessimistic and difficult to please, so that i could identify the PR spins from the truth. But during the course of my work, I *have* seen some real results of some of government’s social programs for the poor. There *are* results, but like you, I hope there are more of them, enough to make a real difference.