THE government should pay attention to the volatility of capital flow and the infrastructure gaps to achieve a stronger economy and a higher gross domestic product per capita.
Dr. Ma. Cyd N. Tuano-Amador, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) assistant governor for monetary policy, warned Filipinos of these economic challenges during last Friday’s Conference of Gearing up for External Competitiveness held at the Cebu City Marriott Hotel.
Now is the time for the us to pay more attention to the volatility of capital flow in the country that could lead to tightening of credits; and thus, limiting development in the country, Amador said.
The infrastructure gaps are also a factor that can slow down the economy’s growth.
She, however, said that the government is slowly addressing this problem, which has enhanced social inclusion through more job creation.
She also cited the slow global growth which could have an impact on the local growth performance.
Competitiveness
“We expect global growth to likely continue to be modest in the mid-term and it’s our challenge to grow our economy at a rate faster than the global growth,” she said.
She encouraged the country to achieve external competitiveness in order to sustain its traditional markets which include the United States of America, Europe and Japan as well as tap opportunities in the emerging markets of China and Indonesia.
“External competitiveness would mean achieving productivity, skills development, more aggressive and effective marketing, diversification of products and price competitiveness through lowest production cost,” Amador said.
gdp growth
Despite the calamities which hit the country in this quarter, Amador assured that the BSP still expects the country’s macro-economic fundamentals to remain relatively stable and the gross domestic product to remain within the target date.
“Although we expect some disruptions to arise due to the calamities, we see this as something passing and will not affect the macroeconomic fundamentals of the country that has been very stable,” Amador said.
She said that the first half performance was fueled by domestic demand, strong credit activity and upbeat consumer morale.
She expects the inflation rate and the interest rates to stay within government’s target of between three percent and five percent until 2014.
“Our banking system is still healthy with strong deposits, asset quality is also sound. The banks are well-capitalized with robust lending activities so they are well positioned to fuel capital for more developments that can stir more economic activity in the country,” said Amador./Reporter Aileen Garcia-Yap