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With sustained economic growth, Philippines will completely eliminate poverty within a generation, says economist

Posted on June 10, 2015

BAGAC, Bataan, June 10 (PNA) — The country’s economic growth is so high that if sustained, it could completely eliminate poverty within a generation, an economist has said.

During a press conference here, World Bank lead economist Rogier van den Brink was asked if the World Bank is changing its projections because of the Philippines’ lower-than-expected gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the first quarter.

Van den Brink said that whether it is 7 percent, 6 percent or 5 percent, the Philippines remains on the top league in the world. He said his home country Holland has not grown at 5 percent.

“So, what matters a lot is how that growth reaches the poor. And in that front, we’ve seen since 2013 a definite change in the pattern of growth,” he said.

Before 2013, it was difficult to see how the economic growth was reducing poverty but since 2013, there have been very reliable source of data, such as household survey and labor survey data, that all show the same thing, he noted.

Underemployment and poverty are going down and the income at the bottom is growing at 20 percent or 30 percent faster that the rest of the country, van den Brink said.

“So if you keep growing in this range, let’s say the 5, 6 percent range in this sort of pattern, if this growth remains, you can reduce poverty completely within a generation,” he stressed.

“That’s how high these growth rates are and that’s how the direction of this growth has been changing in the last years.”

Sluggish government spending has limited the growth of the Philippine economy during the first quarter of the year to 5.2 percent, the slowest since 2012.

The country’s first-quarter GDP growth was down from the 6.6 percent expansion posted in the fourth quarter of last year, as well as from the 5.6 percent growth rate registered during the January to March 2014 period.

Delegates of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are here to discuss fiscal transparency, aiming to achieve inclusive growth in the Asia-Pacific region. (PNA)

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