Wednesday, March 12, 2008 Arroyo's economic team sees a good year ahead By Carlo P. Mallo
THE economic team of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo sees a good year ahead, despite of the internal and external factors that may affect the over-all performance of the economy.
But, the government is more cautious in giving the economy a free hand, especially the foreign exchange of the Philippine peso and the US dollar.
In Monday's Philippine Economic Briefing, the economic team was in unison in saying the Philippine economy will remain robust this year, especially that the government will be pouring in over 60 percent of its infrastructure projects in the first half of the year.
Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Rolando Andaya said in a press conference Monday that the government will be pouring in almost 60 percent of infrastructure projects in the first half of the year to keep the economy on a robust mode.
For her part, Iluminada Sicat, Director of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, said they would be giving the market a free hand in determining the value of the Philippine peso. "Simply let the market determine," Sicat said.
"But only as far as that it would not affect the inflation target," Sicat added.
On the general view, Sicat said they are expecting the Philippine economy to be on an upward trend for the first half of the year.
"But there might be a slow down by the second half," Sicat said.
Sicat credited the upward trend of the economy to the firmness of the exchange rate between the Philippine peso and the US dollar, as well as to the liquidity of assets.
