More government spending seen in the third quarter will help pick up the six percent to seven target economic growth by year-end, Department of Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno said.

During a forum with Reuters, Diokno pointed out several indicators that will help boost economic growth by year-end, such as the improvement in government spending in the third-quarter, which is expected to be sustained until December.

“The economy slowed down because of the underspending of the government, but it has picked up. So that’s no longer a problem,” Diokno said.

Government spending in third-quarter rose to 6.7 percent from the previous quarter's annual decline of 0.7 percent.

The finance chief also cited the easing of inflation last month, which dipped to 4.9 percent from 6.1 percent in the previous month.

In the first 10-months of the year, the inflation was recorded at 6.4 percent, which is closer to the Development Budget Coordination Committee assumption of five percent to six percent but above the government’s inflation target of two percent to four percent for the year.

“We expect the inflation forecasted by the Central Bank of the Philippines to be within the target range of two to four percent by the first quarter of next year and 2025 also, so we're on target,” Diokno said.

“So it's coming down. We have adopted several measures – food and non-food – and it's mostly the food items that are still out of the range,” he added.

Diokno further said that the government is mitigating the effects of inflation on vulnerable sectors through targeted food and fuel subsidies.

In addition, he said that the Marcos administration's infrastructure investments would help in boosting economic growth. Currently, the country has 197 infrastructure flagship projects, 30 percent of which are ready for public-private partnerships (PPP).

The government has recently reformed the country’s PPP policy framework to fully enable it as an additional financing mode for infrastructure projects.

The government wants to maintain infrastructure spending at five percent to six percent of gross domestic product (GDP) annually.

Meanwhile, the Maharlika Investment Fund, which is the country’s first-ever sovereign wealth fund, could help finance more big-ticket infrastructure projects, according to Diokno. It is set to be operational before year-end.

Further, the finance chief also emphasized that the country’s economy’s faster GDP growth of 5.9 percent in the third-quarter of 2023 and year-to-date average growth of 5.5 percent is the strongest among economies in Asia.

“That's the fastest growing economy in that part of the world, faster than China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, etcetera,” he said.