Philippine economy to emerge stronger in 2019

MANILA, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine economy will continue to emerge stronger this year, to be followed by a very good year for Economic expansion in 2020, according to an assessment of the Economic managers of President Rodrigo Duterte's administration.

"Despite looming headwinds, we remain confident of the sound macroEconomic fundamentals and resilience of the Philippine economy," the Economic managers under the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) said in a joint statement.

Based on sound macro-Economic assumptions, the DBCC said the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth target range has been adjusted to 6.0-7.0 percent in 2019, 6.5-7.5 percent in 2020, and 7.0-8.0 percent from 2021 to 2022.

On Wednesday, the members of the DBCC held a meeting to revisit the macroEconomic assumptions and medium-term fiscal and growth targets of the government. This is in light of recent developments, both domestic and external, as well as in preparation for the proposed 2020 National Expenditure Program (NEP).

According to the macro-Economic assumptions of the DBCC, the inflation rate assumption will remain at 3.0-4.0 percent in 2019 and at 2.0-4.0 percent from 2020 to 2022. This is consistent with the government's estimate that inflation will return to the target level this year, the committee said.

The DBCC said revenue collections are projected to reach 3.15 trillion pesos (about 59.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019, equivalent to 16.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), the highest in recent years.

The role of the DBCC is primarily to review and approve the macroEconomic targets, revenue projections, borrowing level, aggregate budget level and expenditure priorities and recommend to the cabinet and the president of the consolidated public sector financial position and the national government fiscal program.

"We assure the Filipino people that the Economic managers will continue to monitor developments, at home and overseas, to secure the sustained growth and development of the country," the DBCC said.