National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan expects that speeding up government spending during the second half of the year could improve the country’s growth rate by the end of 2023.

NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan (Photo from the Presidential Communications Office)

Though he did not claim that fast-tracking government spending solely would enable the government to reach its growth targets, he seemed confident this would help in boosting domestic demands and ultimately, the country’s growth.

“We have identified the sources of the slowdown and we think that we can speed-up the implementation of projects and programs to benefit the economy for the second half of the year,” Balisacan explained.

“So the things that were not spent in the first half could be spent in the second half and so it will get recorded as part of the economic activities during the second half,” he added.

In a Palace press briefing on Wednesday, Aug. 23, Balisacan shared that NEDA has already presented its action plan and the catch-up plans for government agencies to speed up their spending by completing projects.

This came after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released its latest Monetary Policy Report showed that the GDP outturn in 2023, 2024, and 2025 will fall below the growth targets set by the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

Aside from boosting government spending, the NEDA chief detailed how the slowing down of inflation, improving quality of jobs, and investing in public and private sectors could also aid the country reach its growth goals.

“And we do that (slow down inflation), if we succeed in that, that will be a big boost to our domestic demand and to our growth,” he said.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the country’s GDP expansion of 4.3 percent from April to June was slower than the 6.4 percent growth recorded in the first quarter.

This was also slower than the 7.5 percent expansion during the same quarter last year.

“Remember that our goal [unclear] cannot say that what we need, first and foremost, is massive investment ‘no to improve the quality of jobs. Because as an economist looking at the problem, it’s not so much already anymore the jobs per se that are the problems, but the quality of the jobs that are there,” Balisacan said.

“And, of course, we need nothing less than investment not just in the public sector but even more importantly, in the private sector that makes that improvement and the quality of jobs possible,” he added.