The government expects the country to bounce back in 2021 as it safely reopens the economy and rolls out the COVID-19 vaccine next year.
This positive take was shared by Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, who on Sunday said that “the planned national roll-out of the vaccines, together with sustained efforts to enforce COVID-19 containment protocols as we safely reopen and reboot our economy, allow us to be cautiously optimistic about the coming year.”
The Palace official said that the government’s economic team is bullish about the prospects of the economy, with GDP growth projected in 2021 at 6.5% to 7.5%.
Nograles acknowledged that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, “the past year has been challenging, not just for the country, but for the whole world.”
He pointed out, however, that “with a clear plan and path forward, the government believes we will be in a good position to recover and rebound from this pandemic, and regain our status as one of the most promising and dynamic economies in the region.”
According to Nograles, the government plans to continue enforcing COVID-19 protocols strictly and consistently as these are “vital in government efforts to safely reopen the economy.”
“We believe it is possible to stimulate economic activity while containing COV and preventing a surge in the number of cases in the country.”
Nograles, head of the government’s Zero Hunger Task Force, explained that the resumption of economic activities will benefit employment and, consequently, hunger.
“The correlation between hunger and employment is apparent; just as unemployment has been halved between April and October this year, in terms of raw numbers, the number of families that have experienced involuntary hunger have also been nearly halved––from 7.6 million families in September 2020 to four million families in November 2020,” said the former legislator.
“Given this, we recognize how important it is for the government to safely reopen the economy in order for the country’s citizens to return to work and subsequently inspire consumer confidence to help boost economic activity; the roll-out of vaccines is also expected to help in this regard, as more and more of the population will be able to resume working.”
