PH on the way to hitting bullseye in 2019, 2020 growth targets, says DOF chief
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III expressed confidence that growth targets for 2019 and 2020 would be hit as the government ramps up spending and the 2020 national budget appeared to be moving in Congress without delay.
Dominguez said actual growth would be between the 6-7 percent target “and it looks like our continuous monitoring of projects and removal of bottlenecks are paying off.”
He said “the two big infrastructure departments are doing their utmost and quite achieving a good percentage of their targets.” He was referring to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Department of Transportation (DOTr), which are at the forefront of the ambitious “Build, Build, Build” program of President Rodrigo Duterte.
As of end-October, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had already released 100 percent of the P3.7-trillion 2019 budget to agencies which would further increase spending before yearend, Dominguez told reporters on Thursday after the Cabinet’s Economic Development Cluster meeting.
