BSP chief: Fiscal package to boost PHL economy

The Philippine economy has a better fighting chance of expanding with the P72-billion fiscal stimulus package that the President detailed on Wednesday, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. said. Another central bank official also sees the stimulus package as a big boost to the economy. BSP Deputy Gov. Diwa Gunigundo said the fiscal stimulus package will help government achieve the higher end of its revised economic growth targets. “If the government is able to spend as much as it has projected in terms of the acceleration program and we hit the high-end of the range, that is 5.5 percent, that is something that is noteworthy considering the uncertainties of the times," Guinigundo said. Tetangco, in an interview with reporters, noted that the Philippines is in a position to gain from the economic lifeline cast by the Aquino administration, especially after authorities successfully kept the budget deficit way below the programmed shortfall in the first eight months of 2011, Tetangco said in an interview with reporters. Solid upward trajectory “The fiscal stimulus will give the necessary push to keep our economic growth in a solid upward trajectory. There is sufficient liquidity in the system, the exchange rate is stable, and the inflation outlook continues to be manageable," Tetangco noted. President Benigno Aquino III announced the P72-billion stimulus package, which would include a P6.5-billion support fund for local government units, in his speech before the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines forum in Makati City. The Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee has lowered its GDP growth forecast until next year amid global uncertainties, said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga Jr. at a Senate budget hearing Wednesday. http://www.gmanews.tv/story/235143/business/pnoy-admin-lowers-2011-2012-economic-forecasts Government also trimmed the budget deficit by 84.88 percent, to P34.49 billion from January to August this year, compared to P228.1 billion in the same period in 2010, according to Bureau of Treasury data. Earlier, the Aquino administration committed to narrow the deficit to 3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product in the three years to 2016 when Aquino’s term ends. — PE/VS, GMA News