The growth rate for the Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) in 2022 might not reach 7 percent as the government hopes, and instead slow down to 5.3 percent even if it’s an election year because of a surge in cases linked to the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
Nicholas Mapa, ING Bank senior economist in the Philippines, in a research note urged state economic managers to “curb your enthusiasm” as they gun for economic expansion of 7 to 9 percent.
Preliminary data suggest that Philippine GDP in 2021 grew by 5.6 percent, which surpassed that target range of 5 percent to 5.5 percent.
With the growth of GDP exceeding the goal in 2021, financial sector regulators led by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expressed optimism that the domestic economy might regain prepandemic levels this year, barring complications with the COVID-19 virus.
The inter-agency Financial Stability Coordination Council (FSCC) said in a report released last week the economy will get back to 2019 country income by 2022.
The FSCC said that, assuming that real GDP growth holds at 5 percent in 2021 and rises to 7 percent in 2022, the country may regain income lost to the pandemic in the fourth quarter of 2023.