Businessmen predict 3% growth in 2009
Agence France-Presse | 12/05/2008 8:48 PM
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Philippine business leaders said Friday that economic growth next year would slow to three percent amid the global financial crisis, which would mean more people out of work.
However, Sergio Ortiz-Luis, chairman of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, did say that "growth will not go below three percent."
The latest official gross domestic product growth projection for 2009 is 3.7 percent.
The economy expanded by 4.6 percent in the nine months to September 2008. Exports over the same period rose four percent.
Ortiz-Luis expects salary remittances by millions of Filipinos working overseas to remain strong, and some exports to rise despite the recession in developed countries.
"While others are in decline, we are still growing," he told reporters.
Although electronics and semiconductors, the country's main export products, had suffered declines, other sectors had taken up the slack, Ortiz-Luis said.
"What is important is we keep growing, no matter how little the growth," said the chamber president Edgardo Lacson.
While heavy job losses may be avoided, he conceded it was doubtful that many of the estimated one million Filipinos who will join the labour force in 2009 would find jobs.
"We will not be able to generate the employment for the new entrants," he said.
Another chamber official, Miguel Varela, said 2009 will be "a very challenging year."
He said the government must help through spending more on infrastructure and other state projects. He and his colleagues said overseas remittances and "a relatively stable banking system" would help.
