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Setbacks

For two straight years now, the Philippine economy performed weaker than expected. It grew by 5.6 percent last year, missing the government’s six to 6.5 percent target, only slightly better than the 5.5 percent economic performance in 2023, which was lowered from 5.6 percent and which was also below the government’s six to seven percent target for that year. It was also short of the 7.6 percent recorded in 2022.

More than the numbers, Filipinos are feeling the pinch. Try doing your usual grocery run and you will easily notice that prices of your usual food items continue to skyrocket. Prices of gasoline remain unabated. Prices of utilities such as water also increased at the start of the year.

Against this backdrop, what is the Marcos administration doing to resolve our economic woes? It has been implementing measures to make available rice at P29 per kilo but what about the rest of the commodities?

Prices of agricultural goods continue to sell at high prices, something that industry sources said should be blamed on the cartel.

Commenting on last year’s growth, NEDA undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said the country faced numerous setbacks like extreme weather events, geopolitical tensions and subdued global demand, similar to the challenges we encountered in 2023. 
She said this is now the new normal and therefore, the Philippines, she said, must build resilience to cope with these setbacks.

The agriculture sector in particular faced several setbacks, particularly between late October until mid-November, when six typhoons struck the country in succession. These extreme weather conditions led to a 1.8 percent year-on-year contraction in the agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors in the fourth quarter of 2024, she said.
Manufacturing likewise grew by only 3.1 percent in the fourth quarter, hampered by subdued global demand due to geopolitical tensions and the slow recovery of advanced economies.

To cope with the challenging times, the government will look at other sectors to drive growth. Tourism and the IT-BPM sector are among the areas the government is eyeing, Usec. Edillon said.

New tourism products, such as those under experiential tourism, for instance,

Read more on philstar.com
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