MANILA – The National Economic and Development Authority is sticking with a 6 to 7 percent growth target for the country saying the gradual lifting of quarantine restrictions and continuing vaccination rollout will help economic recovery.

NEDA said the economy is projected to grow 7 to 9 percent in 2022 as the government recalibrates its risk management strategy.

Several multilateral lenders and international economic think tanks earlier lowered their forecast for the Philippines citing the reimposition of stricter lockdown measures in March amid the fresh surge in COVID-19 cases as well as the country’s slow vaccination rollout.

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But Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua said that unlike the lockdown in 2020, the government did not shut down 75 percent of the economy this year despite going back to stricter quarantine measures.

“In fact, we allowed the public transport to operate even during this year's enhanced community quarantine (ECQ),” Chua said during the annual forum hosted by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines (EJAP).

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Chua said in terms of mobility, the country is just 25 percent down from the normal period, compared to last year when 50 to 80 percent of mobility was down.

“This shows the kind of recovery that we are expecting in the second quarter,” he added.

Economic managers earlier projected 6.5 percent to 7.5 percent growth in 2021, after the country's gross domestic product contracted by 9.6 percent in 2020 due to the pandemic.

This was later lowered to a growth rate of 6 to 7 percent, to account for the reimposition of lockdowns following the new surge in COVID-19 infections.

Enhanced community quarantine was imposed in late March, which was lowered to the less strict modified ECQ in April.

Chua said the country had solid macroeconomic fundamentals as a result of structural reforms undertaken before the pandemic.

The NEDA chief said three measures will push the recovery.

“The first is re-opening the economy at the appropriate time and allowing an expanded age group to go out with safeguards, including the resumption of face-to-face learning in low-risk areas. The second is the accelerated implementation of the recovery package, consisting of more than 2 trillion pesos or 15 percent of GDP, in terms of fiscal, monetary, and financial resources. The third is the timely implementation of the vaccination program,” he said.

The country aims to fully vaccinate 58 million Filipinos by the end of the year.

As of June 13 however, only 1,879,694 individuals have received 2 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine based on the ABS-CBN News vaccine tracker. This number represents just 3.24 percent of the government’s target, after more than 3 months.

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