Strategies

By the second semester of 2022, he also projects the economy to return to pre-pandemic levels of growth.

Villegas, however, believes that a 6- to 7-percent economic growth this year is doable whoever wins the presidential election because the country is already moving away from the low-middle income bracket.

“The thing is, we can [even] grow at

8 to 10 percent GDP wise if we make the right choice. But whatever criteria we use for good governance, if we’re able, we’re lucky to get the right president. [It] is very doable,” he said.

For his part, George Barcelon, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, revealed the Philippine economy’s bright points this year.

He said the Covid-19 pandemic’s containment has been stepped up, as has the alert level in various areas, in order to boost economic growth; remittances; foreign direct investment inflows; a solid,

stable and well-functioning financial system; and strong macroeconomic fundamentals.

“Talking about business outlook, we are optimistic but we have what we call it cautious optimism,” Barcelon said, pointing out that the unemployment rate, natural disasters and inflation rate are still quite high.

“Those are some of the concerns, yes, but we feel that the strong rebound is definitely in the pipeline between public and private partnership,” he added.