With the Labor Day celebration a few days away, Malacañang Sunday appeared cautious over proposals to raise the salaries of workers as the country recovers from the impact of the global financial recession.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar said the Palace would have to study carefully proposed wage increases, particularly balance the interests of workers and the industry, before endorsing such move amid a fragile economic recovery.

Olivar pointed out that the country, like other nations, is just starting to rebound from the economic  downturn and requires job-generating investments to sustain growth.

“Is it wise to raise the labor cost of the investors? If we do that, will they still invest in the country or will they put up their shop elsewhere and we lose the potential jobs that their investments would have created here? That’s what we have to think about. This kind of decisions is not easy. We have to think of all considerations, he said in his weekly media briefing aired over government radio.

Olivar said the global recession has not affected the Philippines as badly as it has hit other economies although the road to recovery will be tough.

He said the country kept a positive growth rate while dollar remittances from overseas Filipinos helped offset the losses obtained by the export and manufacturing sectors.

“At present, the world is recovering from the crisis. The economies of our major export markets and those countries with investments in the Philippines have also started to recover,” he said.