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Manila Bulletin devider Business devider Diokno sees 2-percent slowdown in the first quarter

Diokno sees 2-percent slowdown in the first quarter

Published Apr 27, 2020 12:00 am
By Rizal Obanil Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno predicts that the economy might slow down by 2 percent in this first quarter but will bounce back in last quarter of this year. Incoming Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno . (KEVIN ESPIRITU / MANILA BULLETIN) Incoming Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin E. Diokno 
(KEVIN ESPIRITU / MANILA BULLETIN) Diokno explained that they already expect the economic growth to be lower that expected for the first quarter of the year. He said that the economy will be in the “negative territory” in quarter 2, slightly negative in quarter 3 but will bounce back in the last quarter. The BSP governor said that it is still “very iffy to forecast at this time because we don’t know when (the) virus will fade.” “We did some run on the economy, and we expect the economy to slow down by 2 percent this year but there will be a bounce of 7.7 next year,” Diokno said in an interview over ANC Monday, hosted by Cathy Yang. Regarding inflation, Diokno said: “And on inflation, we had a run and we expect inflation to be in the neighborhood of 2 percent this year and slightly higher, 2.5 percent next year although there’s a downside risk. It could be better than 2 percent.” When asked whether the economic slowdown was an effect of the implementation of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) he answered: “No. In fact, I expect things to be better because we are moving towards normalization.” He explained that the government’s decision to transition from ECQ to general community quarantine (GCQ) will help the economy. Diokno said that a big part of the country which was under ECQ will open up, there will be some relaxation on the guidelines enforced under ECQ and construction and other essential industries will start to eventually lead to normalization.
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