Philippine economy rebounds in 2021 as COVID rules relaxed

Philippine economy rebounds in 2021 as COVID rules relaxed

MANILA: The Philippine economy rebounded stronger than expected in 2021 after a relaxation of COVID-19 rules fuelled consumer spending and got more people back to work, officials said yesterday as they forecast a return to pre-pandemic growth this year. Gross domestic product expanded 5.6 percent, the statistics agency said, after a 9.6 percent slump the previous year-the worst since World War II-was fuelled by crippling lockdowns destroying millions of jobs and forcing people to stay home.

The latest reading beat the median forecast of 5.1 percent growth expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The surprising performance was driven by a pick-up in consumer spending and construction in the second half of the year as restrictions eased and coronavirus infections fell. “The door to our economic recovery is now fully open,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua told a briefing. “We are optimistic that we will not only recover to the pre-pandemic level in 2022, but achieve the upper middle income country status.” Even factoring in the impact of Super Typhoon Rai, which devastated central and southern regions of the country in December and left hundreds of thousands homeless, the Philippines was “on track to rapid recovery”, Chua said.

The main risk to the