The newly released Philippine Economy Development Plan aims to foster growth that’s inclusive and will benefit every Filipino, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said on Monday.
This means the economic growth must come with better jobs to improve the lives of Filipinos including the poor, Balisacan said.
“We have outlined in our Philippine Economy Development Plan, an economy that is beneficial for all Filipinos. What that means is that growth is accompanied by generation of better and higher quality jobs, not just more jobs but most importantly better and higher quality jobs,” Balisacan said.
“The growth has to be inclusive, associated with improvement in the quality of jobs and low inflation and that way we can raise everybody’s welfare,” he added.
He said the plan also includes addressing current headwinds such as elevated inflation that’s hurting the poorest sectors.
Inflation in December reached 8.1 percent due to the higher prices of vegetables including onions. Vegetable inflation reached 32.4 percent for the month, the highest since February 1999.
Among the targets outlined in the recent Philippine Economy Development Plan are:
• An annual GDP growth of 6.5 to 8 percent from 2024 to 2028
• PH to be ranked among top 33 in the global competitiveness index by 2028 (#45 in 2019)
• Lower unemployment rate of 5.3 percent to 6.4 percent in 2024, 4.5 to 5 percent from 2026 to 2028
• Gross national income per capita to be $6,044 to $6,571 by 2028 ($3,640 in 2021)
• Lower poverty incidence rate of 16 to 16.4 this year, 8.8 to 9 percent or single-digit by 2028.
