Gov’t exploring ‘all options’ in order to weather economic impact of COVID-19 outbreak, says Nograles

March 5, 2020

A Palace official said with the COVID-19 outbreak expected to adversely affect the world economy, the government is ready to weather the economic impact of the outbreak and is exploring measures to mitigate the impact of the disease on trade, tourism, and employment.

Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles on Thursday assured the public that "at this point government is studying all options as part of contingency measures to reduce the impact of the outbreak on the economy." 

"So far an affected industry has been tourism so plans are being implemented to help the industry cope with the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak," said Nograles, one of the members of the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.

"That being said, we are encouraged by the fact that employment remains steady and manufacturing has proven resilient," said the former lawmaker from Davao.

Nograles pointed out that the Philippines Manufacturing PMI rose to 52.3 last month from 52.1 in January.

A PMI reading above 50 signifies improvements in the operating conditions, which include new orders, output, employment, suppliers delivery times and stocks of purchases. A reading below 50, on the other hand, signifies a slowdown.

"The Philippines continues to show a PMI above 50, unlike neighboring countries with below 50 PMIs for the past couple of months."

According to Nograles, the employment rate in the Philippines "remains steady at 94.7 percent which is the same as a year ago, even as our labor force increased to 42.7 million compared to 41 million during the same month last year.

Meanwhile, underemployment rate in January decreased to 14.8 percent compared to 15.4 percent a year ago." 

The cabinet official also revealed that the Department of Finance has informed the President and members of the Cabinet that the Philippines is in a very good fiscal and monetary position as it cited the manageable debt-to-GDP rate of the Philippines and good credit standing should there be a need to borrow funds. 

Cabinet members were also told "that the country had a large buffer to stimulate the economy in case of a slowdown and that the target GDP growth of up to 6.5 percent for 2020 remains unchanged." 

"Of course, it is imperative that the implementing agencies such as the DPWH and DOTr continue their spending program to further stimulate the economy." DMS