Q2 GDP growth ”not unexpected result”: Dominguez

August 8, 2019

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the second quarter growth of 5.5 percent was not an ''unexpected result'' given the residual effects of the four-months-and-a-half delay in the passage of the 2019 national budget by the House of Representatives. 

Dominguez said he remains hopeful growth could hit six percent in the coming quarters as the Duterte administration’s catch-up spending strategy picks up in the third and fourth quarters.

He also sees growth partly driven in the second half by stronger domestic consumption amid continued slowdown in headline inflation, which fell to a 31-month low of 2.4 percent in July.

''Second-quarter growth was not an unexpected result given the apparent lingering impact on the government’s accelerated spending program of the four months-and-a-half delay in the passage of the 2019 budget in the House of Representatives. This delay was further exacerbated by the ban on infrastructure projects during the election campaign,” Dominguez said.

He noted that the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) on the 2019 General Appropriations Act was released only in the last week of May. 

Dominguez said the carryover to the April-June period of the effects of the first-quarter budget delay points to “the pernicious impact on the domestic economy of the undue delay in the approval by the House of the national budget, more so in the midst of an unprecedented aggressive public spending program to stimulate high—and inclusive—growth.

''Let this be a stark reminder to our lawmakers as to why they should avoid any delay in the approval of the 2020 GAB (General Appropriations Bill).” he added. 

Dominguez said he is optimistic there wouldn’t be a repeat as Senate and House leaders to pass their consolidated GAB version on time. DMS