The Philippine economy expanded by 7.4 percent in the second quarter of the year, slower than the revised 8.2 percent in the first quarter, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. 

Arsenio Balisacan, secretary of the National Economic and Development Authority said the second quarter economic growth was slightly less than the median forecast of 7.5 percent. 

According to Balisacan, this figure places the country as the second best-performing nation among the region’s major emerging economies that have released their second quarter reports. 

“Our country is next to Vietnam’s 7.7 percent but faster than Indonesia’s 5.4 percent and China’s 0.4 percent. This performance also remains in line with our expectations, or our expected 6.5 to 7.5 percent growth in 2022,” he said. 

Balisacan said timely changes in COVID-related policies, such as easing alert levels, removing tourism restrictions, and accelerated vaccine rollout, helped increase economic activities.

“As of June 2022, around 85 percent of the economy is already under Alert Level 1. That these changes were implemented during the recently-held national and local elections demonstrate that, indeed, ‘living with the virus’ is possible,” he added. 

Balisacan also said that the government is committed  to pursuing the country’s full reopening, including the return of face-to-face schooling to address the learning losses and increase domestic activities. 

 “The full reopening of the economy will indeed generate more income-earning opportunities. But the purchasing power of that income may be eroded by the high inflation, primarily resulting from increased fuel and food costs,” he said.