By Brenda Goh and Enrico Dela Cruz
DAVOS, Switzerland/Manila (Reuters) – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr said his country It will resist headwinds from a global recession, but warns that rising tensions in the South China Sea in the Philippines are hurting trade.
Marcos was upbeat about the country’s economic outlook in a speech Wednesday at the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting amid a recession brought on by the cost of living and energy crisis.
“I believe that as long as unemployment remains low, we will be able to withstand the forces of the recession,” he said.
He said the upskilling of his country’s workforce was driving economic growth, including remittances from overseas workers.
But growing tensions in the South China Sea are affecting trade and exchanges among all countries in the region, he said.
“The future of the region must be determined by the region, not
Earlier, Marcos said he expects the domestic economy to grow around 7% this year, And said that strong fundamentals, prudent fiscal management and reforms in key sectors will mitigate potential global recession.
Southeast Asian countries will be in January 10 announced its 2022 economic performance), also expects GDP growth to be faster than the 6.5%-7.5% target last year.
“ Over the years, our strong macroeconomic fundamentals, fiscal discipline, structural reforms, and the liberalization of key sectors have enabled us to withstand the negative shocks of the pandemic and the ensuing recession and chart a path to a strong recovery, Marcos was quoted as saying in a statement Wednesday from his office. Corporate executives. There, he met with potential investors to seek support for his infrastructure development plans.
Felipe Medalla, Governor of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said in January
The pent-up domestic demand after the lifting of pandemic restrictions underpinned economic growth last year and will continue to support consumer spending this year
.
“Our actual forecast is 6.5 (percentage of 2022), but there are indications that we may exceed that,” Marcos said in a statement. Voss said he also pitched his proposed sovereign wealth fund to potential investors.
He said they were mostly pitching the idea. “We want people to realize this is in the works,” he said. . This is what we can look forward to, and we will be able to use it to promote the continued development of the Philippines.
Critics have raised concerns about the transparency and governance of the wealth fund, which has been approved by the House of Representatives and is yet to be considered by the Senate.
Under the bill, the state Lenders Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines will provide a total of 37 billion pesos (1.
million) as initial capital, while the central bank will make follow-up contributions through dividends.
The Philippines is also grappling with soaring prices of onions, which are widely used in many local dishes, and prompted the government to approve emergency onion imports.
Marcos said that due to imports, prices It has started to decline, but in the long run, the need to increase production cannot be avoided.
When asked about criticism of the government’s poor planning, such as delayed import decisions, is the cause of this, he said the government was trying to figure out how much they had and blamed it on illegal imports.
“We can handle it better now, I think we can move from We see it in our procurement plans,” he said. “But the long-term solution is to increase productivity. ”
