MANILA — The average Filipino is doing better under the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, according to a report from the Forbes Magazine.
Forbes.com contributor Panos Mourdoukoutas based his assessment on a report of Tradingeconomics.com that the Philippines’ per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) registered a record high of USD2,891.36 in 2017.
The all-time high per-capita GDP was well above the average of USD1,627.98 for the period of 1960-2017.
The report, titled “The Philippines’ Per-Capita GDP Has Reached An All-Time High Under Duterte,” said Filipinos are doing better under Duterte when per-capita GDP is adjusted by purchasing power parity (PPP).
“That measure, too, reached a record USD7,599.19 in 2017, well above of USD4,969.71 for the period 1990-2017,” it added.
The GDP per capita is obtained by dividing the country’s GDP, adjusted by inflation, by the total population.
“Macroeconomic stability has helped the Philippines economy demonstrate a great deal of resilience in recent years. At the end of 2017, it grew at an annual 6.9 percent in the September quarter. That’s the strongest growth since the third quarter 2016. And the Philippines’ economy was still growing at 6 percent at the end of 2018,” the report said.
According to recent McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), the Philippines is among the emerging market economies “that are well-prepared to achieve sustained growth over the next decade”.
MGI cited the increase in gross fixed-capital formation (investment) which “reached PHP695,414.08 million in the second quarter of 2018 from roughly PHP450,000 million in July of 2015 — well above the PHP303,138.16 million for the period 1998 until 2018, and an all-time high”.
However, the Philippines’ per capita GDP is equivalent to 23 percent of the world’s average which makes Filipinos poor.
Mourdoukoutas advised the Duterte administration to “keep an eye on the price of bread and rice” rather than celebrate the record per capital GDP.
“And he should look at his human rights record, which cannot be balanced by any economic record,” Mourdoukoutas said in his article. (Jelly Musico/PNA)
