Friday, October 17, 2008 Editorials: Politics of economic survival
WHILE the view of economic observers, both domestic and foreign, on the republic’s economy is heartening, still some say there is yet no reason to sit down and gloat, or for our leaders to drop their guard.
These are economically unstable times, and Filipinos should stay focused on the domestic economic scene.
The National Economic Development Authority (Neda) has admitted that the country’s economy is going through a serious circumstance as a result of the global financial crisis.
While it may contract, there is really no chance that it will crash.
This continuing stability, according to Neda, should preempt any tendency among our people to panic.
Bailout plan
Meanwhile, Western leaders are not leaving things to chance.
Government officials from the 27-nation European Union (EU) pledged an estimated “2.0 trillion euros ($2.7 trillion) to bring banks back from the brink of collapse.
The EU countries are rallying behind the plan “to tackle the crisis.”
“The stakes are higher than ever before and the coming days will be crucial for the international financial community…It will take time –-and these are tough times—for us to resolve the problems that have emerged in the banking system,” they said.
Pledges
In Asia, considered the least affected by the global economic slowdown, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their regional partners plan to “set up a standby fund to help countries in the region with severe liquidity problems as a result of the global economic crunch.”
Toward this end, the World Bank has pledged $10 billion to the proposed standby fund.
It may be recalled that the US Congress has just recently passed the $700 billion bailout fund for the beleaguered American financial institutions.
President Arroyo expressed hope that the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the big economies of Asia, will follow, too.
The big economies, of course, are China and Japan.
Although they are not much affected, and are able to maintain their economic stability in the face of the global downturn, they ought not to stand by.
They ought to help insure the Asian region’s economic survival, too.
