PH Expected to Hit Pre-Pandemic Output Levels in 2022: Economist

Pre-pandemic output levels by the Philippines is expected in 2022 as the government’s investment on infrastructure in 2021 holds the key to a speedy economic recovery for the country, according to a Standard Chartered Bank economist for Asia.

Chidu Narayanan said in a virtual briefing on Friday that the domestic growth of the country is forecast at around 6.1 percent this year, compared to the projected -8.9 percent output of 2020. The economist also added that the projected growth in the last quarter of 2020 of -6.1 to be better than the -11.5 percent during the third quarter of 2020.

The Philippines, as with neighboring countries suffered greatly due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) as the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Philippines in the first three quarters of 2020 suffered a decrease of 10 percent, leading economic managers to have a GDP forecast of between -8.5 percent and -9.5 percent for the said year.

For 2022 however, Narayanan forecast a GDP growth of around 6.5 percent as the government continues to double down on infrastructure, and the calculated relaxation of quarantine protocols to restart the economy as workers may be able to carefully go back to their jobs with health and safety measures in place.

Narayanan added that in order for consumption to be back to pre-pandemic levels, infrastructure along with the improved intervention to fend off the rise of COVID-19 cases are key.

“For investments to come back and for employment to come back, we’ll need infrastructure investment to pick up quite a bit of the slack in 2019 and 2020. These two are the fairly important prerequisites for consumption to come back as well,” he said, according to PNA. (GFB)