Angara: Gov't "spending catch-up plan" key to meeting GDP growth target for the year

Government's "spending catch-up plan" will be key in meeting the full-year GDP growth target of 6 to 7 percent, Sen. Sonny Angara, chair of the Senate finance committee said today, following the release of the 3rd quarter economic scorecard.

"The contribution of the government is to step up its spending, meaning actual payment for goods and services delivered. I am speaking of disbursements and not just obligation of funds," Angara said.

The lawmaker said "a distinction between the two must be made because obligations are mere commitments while disbursements are payments made."

He welcomed the uptick in "public construction spending which is good news because it means that we have somewhat recovered from the delay of the passage of the national budget."

Angara noted the gains in farm output "but we should not be contented with the numbers."

"The challenge is to prevent any backsliding and stop the ASF, the low copra prices and the dip in palay yield from pulling down the agriculture performance," Angara said.

Angara has called on all government agencies to be aggressive in spending their budget for the remaining period of the year.

"I hope that we will be doing all the smart moves in the last two months that would allow us to meet the finish line goal of 6 to 7 percent growth," he added.

"Sabi naman ng mga economic manager, there will be a last quarter spurt, buoyed up in part by the holiday spending and OFW remittances," the senator said.

"The fact that our third quarter expansion outpaces China, India and Indonesia can only be good news for all of us," Angara exclaimed.

"But this is like a UAAP game. This is just a quarter tally. The score that matters is the one for the full year but we are very optimistic about it," he said, stressing that the economic managers seem to be successful in pushing the right buttons.