Economics

Philippines May Miss Growth Target as Covid Cases Surge

First-quarter GDP performance may be near zero: planning chief
Spending boost, ramping up vaccination to aid recovery: Chua

WATCH: Benjamin Diokno, governor of Philippine Central Bank, discusses monetary policy, the economy and the country’s inflation targets.(Source: Bloomberg)

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By Andreo Calonzo

April 14, 2021 at 12:17 AM UTC

Updated on

April 14, 2021 at 3:35 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The Philippines may miss its target of at least 6.5% economic growth this year after a resurgence of Covid-19 infections forced the capital into a two-week lockdown, Economic Planning Secretary Karl Chua said.

“We were a healthy economy before Covid. Now, we’re struggling,” Chua said in an interview Tuesday. “We were too risk averse: We shut down a big part of the economy when other countries didn’t need to do that.”