ECONOMIC TEAM SEEN
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n Tuesday, April 13, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 181
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 18 pages |
TO LOWER ‘21 GDP GOAL
A marshall inspects passengers’ compliance with health protocols inside a Philippine National Railways train at Tutuban station (main) in Manila as operations resumed on Monday (April 12). Only 10 to 12 trains will be operational. Passengers are not allowed to eat, talk to fellow passengers or make or accept calls on their mobile phones while inside the train. ROY DOMINGO
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By Bianca Cuaresma
@BcuaresmaBM
CONOMIC managers will likely revise their growth target for the year as the country reverts to stricter movement and travel restrictions to address the rising Covid-19 cases in major economic hubs in the country. This was bared by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno on Monday, in his appearance at the Lagina Handa
virtual briefing. “[Our] original forecast approved by the DBCC [Development Budget Coordination Committee]
BSP: FDI grow 41.5% in Jan on more upbeat mood
F
OREIGN investors mirrored the optimistic sentiment of Filipino firms in the first month of the year, as long-term investments made by global players grew in January 2021, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported. Foreign direct investments (FDI) net inflows reached $961 million in January this year, up 41.5 percent from the $679 million seen in January last year. FDI are investments made by foreign players to the Philippines with hopes of long-term return. Since these are in the country for a longer term compared to their short-term counterpart, the foreign portfolio investments (FPI), FDI usually create jobs for Filipinos
and have a multiplier effect on the economy. Broken down, the increase in FDI during January was supported mainly by the 116-percent expansion in foreign net investment in debt instruments to $535 million from $248 million in the same month last year. There were also significantly less equity withdrawals in January this year, from $24 million in 2020 to $10 million in 2021. Equity capital placements during the period emanated largely from Singapore, Japan, and the Netherlands and were channeled mostly to financial and insurance, manufacturing, and professional, scientific, and technical industries.
last December 3, 2020 was that our economy will likely grow by 6.5 to 7.5 percent this year. This growth will be pushed higher by 2022 and was earlier expected to reach 8 to 10 percent,” Diokno said. “However, because of the recent restrictions on the economy because of the implementation of the ECQ [Enhanced Community Quarantine] in NCR Plus, it is likely that the DBCC will revisit that original forecast of 6.5 to 7.5 percent this month,” Diokno said. Earlier this month, the govern-
ment put the National Capital Region—along with its neighboring provinces—into stricter lockdowns as Covid-19 cases rose. The policy covered the areas under the so-called NCR Plus, which includes Metro Manila, Laguna, Cavite, Bulacan, and Rizal. This was then lowered to Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (MECQ) effective April 12. The Department of Health (DOH) reported 11,378 new Covid-19 cases on Monday. Continued on A2
GOVT INFRA SPEND RISES TO P107.4B AS OF END-FEB—DBM By Bernadette D. Nicolas
S
@BNicolasBM
TATE infrastructure spending as of end-February surged by 14.4 percent to P107.4 billion from last year’s P93.9 billion, data from the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) showed. The budget department said the pickup in infrastructure spending was attributed to payments for completed infrastructure projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways which were started late last year, as well as the mobilization costs for the current year’s projects, such as road-widening, rehabilitation and improvement and flood control. “The construction of farm-tomarket roads of the Department of Agriculture [DA] under the Bayanihan II, as well as the payables related to the provision of farm machineries and equipment [e.g., tillers, tractors, seeders, threshers, rice planters, harvesters] to qualified farmer organizations as provided in RA 11203 or the Rice Tariffication Law [RTL] also contributed to the higher infrastructure and other capital expenditures,”said DBM in its end-February National Government Disbursement Performance Report.
Overall state spending as of endFebruary this year rose by 18.3 percent to P610.3 billion from last year’s P516 billion last year. For February alone, state infrastructure spending also went up to P56.1 billion this year, jumping by 23.1 percent from P45.6 billion in the same month last year. During the month, overall state spending spiked by 37.3 percent to P335.5 billion from P244.4 billion in February 2020. For the rest of this year, DBM said it expects the continuous implementation of infrastructure projects to be one of the major drivers of government spending growth. Apart from this, it also sees state spending growing on the back of the release and distribution of the Social Amelioration Program for 80 percent of the low-income population affected by the reimposition of the Enhanced Community Quarantine for National Capital Region Plus, as well as the ongoing implementation of Bayanihan 2. The government projects disbursements by the end of this year to hit P4.66 trillion. This is 7.5 percent higher than last year’s actual disbursement performance of P4.34 trillion.
See “BSP,” A2
PESO exchange rates n US 48.5790
n japan 0.4429 n UK 66.5872 n HK 6.2460 n CHINA 7.4133 n singapore 36.2233 n australia 37.0075 n EU 57.8090 n SAUDI arabia 12.9551
Source: BSP (April 12, 2021)