NEDA chief says P38 trillion lost during the pandemic
(Eagle News) – The Philippine government is confident that the economy would further bounce back with the implementation of Alert Level 1 in 39 areas of the country, including the capital region of Metro Manila.
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said that some P3.8 trillion were lost during the pandemic, and with the Alert Level 1 implementation in the country, the country could gain an estimated PHP 9.4 billion per week of economic activity in gross value-added terms.
“As the economy bounces back, we now have to recover all the losses we experienced in the last two years. Iyong total amount na nawala sa atin ay 3.8 trillion pesos,” Chua reported to President Rodrigo Duterte during the latter’s “Talk to the People” on Monday, February 28.
“If not for the pandemic, dapat tuloy-tuloy ‘yung ating growth, aabot tayo ng P25.3 trillion economy by 2022. Pero dahil sa pandemic, nag-slide po tayo to P17.9 trillion noong taong 2020, pero nakikita naman natin ‘yung dahan-dahan na pagtaas ng ating ekonomiya,” he said.
The breakdown of this P3.8 trillion in losses are the following: households lost P1.3 trillion in income; the corporate sector lost P2.2 trillion; and the government lost P300 billion in indirect taxes.
“So iyan ‘yung kailangan natin bawiin,” Chua, who is also the Socioeconomic Planning secretary, said.
“At dahil sa pagsipa po ng Alert Level 1 ay mas mapapabilis ‘yung pagbawi natin,” he said.
Chua said that so far, with 39 areas under Alert Level 1 including Metro Manila, the share of this in the total economy is already 62 percent.
And the share of workers who would benefit from an Alert Level 1 de-escalation here would reach 48 percent of the total workers or equivalent to 20.3 million workers.
“So more than one half na ng ating ekonomiya ay nasa Alert Level 1 at aabot na ng 50 percent ng workers ay nakatira sa Alert Level 1 areas. So maganda ‘yung developments,” he said.
Chua said that P9.4 billion would be added to the economy each week, of which P3 billion are salaries.
“So iyan po ‘yung ibabalik natin sa bulsa ng bawat Pilipino na nawalan ng trabaho o nabawasan ang kita dahil sa Alert Level 2, 3, 4, or 5 sa nakaraan,” he said.
“And in the next quarter ay makakabawi tayo ng 170,000 na less unemployed. Iyan po ‘yung benepisyo ng present Alert Level 1 system natin,” he noted.
If the entire country is placed under Alert Level 1, Chua said that the country would gain much more – as much as P16.5 billion per week, and P5.2 billion in salaries per week for employed Filipinos.
(Eagle News Service)