Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima is not bothered by the drop of the Philippines’ competitive ratings given the big leap of the domestic economy in the first quarter of 2012.
The Philippines is now on the 43rd, from 41st, out of 59 countries rated by
IMD World Competitive Yearbook.
The decline was attributed to the below-target growth in 2011 at 3.9 percent against the 5.5-6.5 percent target growth, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), and the drop in export.
“I’m not really as concerned because knowing what we know right now of the first quarter, which is 6.4 (percent), we’re confident that we have made the necessary adjustment on the government side to continue with the expenditure program of the government,†Purisima told reporters in a briefing Friday.
In the first four months this year, revenues rose by 11.4 percent to P514.24 billion and expenditures by 12.1 percent to P517.13 billion. Budget gap as of last April totalled to P2.9 billion, a turn-around from the P61 million surplus same period last year but way below the P109.34 billion programmed for the first half this year.
And because of the improvement in revenue collection of the government, Purisima said the administration has “enough fiscal space in the budget to support these expenditures.â€
Meanwhile, the Finance chief said the IMD World Competitive Yearbook has noted the improvement in the government’s efficiency in public finance and on institutional framework, thus, he stressed that one “cannot just look at this rating just on the two-notch deterioration but to really look at various factors.â€
He pointed out that “if you isolate the growth issue they probably would have improved our ranking.â€
“If we continue to focus on the agenda of the President then we’ll ultimately get to the upper quartile, which is our ultimate objective,†he added.
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