Aquino Gov’t Focuses on Maintaining High Growth Trajectory for PHL

(PNA) — A Palace official on Tuesday maintains that the Aquino government remains focused on achieving the seven to eight percent expansion target for 2015.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr., in a briefing a day after President Benigno Aquino III delivered his sixth and last State of the Nation Address (SONA), said they are putting in the right measures to further boost domestic growth.

His statement was made after the President, in his SONA, mentioned about a 6.8 percent growth for the economy this year for the government to post an almost six-decade high six-year average growth.

He said there were no changes on the government’s growth target for this and next year.

He explained that the President only highlighted the fact that if the domestic economy remain robust this year its six-year average growth, from 2010-15, would increase from 6.2 percent to about 6.8 percent, the highest in nearly 60 years.

He said that the point here was the government’s commitment to ensure the high growth rate trajectory for the economy.

He cited the results of the survey, which the President included in his SONA speech, which indicated that if the current growth rate of the country continue to remain high, it is possible that it will become a developed economy in 25 years.

In the first quarter of 2015, growth, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), slowed to 5.2 percent from quarter-ago’s 6.6 percent due to lower net exports and drop in government spending.

However, economic managers are positive for a recovery starting in the second quarter due to implementation of infrastructure programs included not only under this year’s budget but also those in the last two years, which were delayed due to institutional weaknesses in the past years that are slowly being addressed. (PNA) RMA/JS/EDS