PHL growing very rapidly — BSP

The Philippines is growing very rapidly and its growth is bound to be sustained because the real yardsticks of growth are vividly seen in the country, a leading economist and a high-ranking official of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) affirmed.

According to deputy governor for monetary stability sector Diwa Guinigundo, at least four leverages of growth are continuously and steadily improving in the Philippines. These are gross domestic product (GDP) growth, balance of payments (BoP), gross international reserves (GIR) and infrastructure spending.

“No hard and fast rule. GDP should be sustained at or slightly higher than potential. BoP position is in a comfortable, surplus position; dollar reserves should be more than sufficient beyond the normal three to four months of imports of goods and services with some upward bias,” said Guinigundo.

The BSP gives its hindsight about the country’s future amidst naysayers who predict that the country will not grow under the current setup.

Many of the observers are saying the current administration is so slow in implementing key economic reform programs like the private-public partnership (PPP).
Some critics, led by former National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) executive director Romulo Virola, are saying government’s strategy in pulling the economy is entirely wrong as it only relies on the remittances of overseas Filipino workers and stable income from business processing outsource.              

According to Guinigundo, the macro-fundamentals of the country are effectively growing, thus providing anyone of better future than other countries, like those in Europe, that have been on slump for several years now.

“We have complied with these very general formulation. Growth benefits more people. Market confidence is very high with good and tight debt spreads,” Gunigundo  explained to The Daily Tribune.

Among GDP, GIR and BoP, it is the GIR that creates the biggest impact as dollar reserves of the Philippines is now more than $81 billion, the biggest in the history of the Philippines.

Some 12 years ago, GIR was only more than $13 billion.

Guinigundo said the continuous growth of GIR only proves that the Philippines “has sustainability and durability” because it’s not easy to keep an upward number of key economic statistics.

However, the official said infrastructure spending shouldn’t be set aside as good infrastructure facilities allow freer movement of goods and services, thus creating additional growth for the economy.

“Infra spending should also be apparent so people will know growth will be sustained over the long run. Sustainability, durability are the key considerations,” Guinigundo pointed out.-Black Pearl (October 16, 2012 3:07PM)