DTI says economy starting to recover

MANILA, Philippines, March 26 ------ The pandemic-battered economy is starting to recover, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said last Wednesday. “The economy is just starting to recover,” DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said at the meeting of the government’s pandemic task force. “Hopefully the improvement will continue until we achieve growth.”

Lopez noted that the economic contraction has become less steep, improving from a decline of 16.5 percent in the second quarter to 11.4 in the third quarter and to 8.3 percent in the last quarter of 2020. The Philippine economy shrank by 9.5 percent last year, the steepest economic decline since 1947. The pandemic has also forced several businesses to close, displacing thousands of workers and prompting the government to allocate billions in aid to households affected by lockdowns.

The DTI chief cited how the unemployment rate has also eased from a high of 17.7 percent in April last year to 8.7 percent later in October. “This (unemployment rate) is slowly going down. That means, many have returned to work; but this is still far from the 5.3 (unemployment rate before the pandemic) so we are working to bring back those who have not yet returned to work,” he said. Lopez said the manufacturing sector has grown, with the Philippine manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) hitting 52.5 in the last two months.

The headline PMI dropped to 31.6 in April during the height of the health crisis. Exports have also recorded positive growth in recent months, he added. He said business name registrations have also increased by 44 percent, with e-commerce business registrations reaching 88,000. “Investments also continue to grow despite this pandemic. Last year, we hit... P1.02 trillion (in total approved investments). In January to December 2020, despite the pandemic, we still reached a trillion level,” the trade chief said. For the first quarter of 2021, total approved investments rose by 64.65 percent to P137 billion.

Source: philstar.com