Think tank: PH infra agenda to support 6.8% growth

YOKOHAMA, Japan—The rollout of more infrastructure projects will allow the Philippines to sustain robust economic growth this year, the Asean+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (Amro) said on Thursday.

“The [Philippine] economy is forecasted to grow at 6.8 percent this year, supported by infrastructure investment, investment on transportation equipment and household consumption,” Amro said in its economic outlook for 2017, titled “Asean+3 Region: 20 Years after the Asian Financial Crisis.”

Amro’s forecast is within the government’s 6.5-7.5 percent target for 2017. Still, it is slightly lower than last year’s 6.9 percent gross domestic product (GDP) expansion.

For 2018, Amro projected the Philippines’ GDP to grow by 7 percent, or at the lower end of the government’s 7-8 percent target range.

Last month, economic managers unveiled the administration’s “Dutertenomics” thrust of “Build, Build, Build” that they claimed would usher in a “golden age of infrastructure.”

The government plans to roll out over P3.6 trillion in public infrastructure projects from 2018 until 2020 while also jacking up to 75 from 55 previously the number of flagship, “game-changing” projects that the administration aims to start and complete before 2022.

A total of P8-9 trillion is expected to be spent by the Duterte administration in the next six years to build vital infrastructure such that the share of infrastructure spending to GDP will rise from 5.3 percent this year to 7.4 percent in 2022.

But Amro said the growth “[might] be lower than expected in the occurrence of shocks to the global economy that [could] affect the domestic economy; for instance, through the remittances income as well as export.”

Amro also warned that “a stronger-than-expected impact of extreme weather conditions could also hinder food production.”