The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said easing restrictions to alert level 2 in Metro Manila from the current classification will boost jobs by 16,000 a week.
Data sent by NEDA to reporters yesterday also showed the de-escalation of National Capital Region (NCR) from alert level 4 to the current alert level 3 has reduced the number of unemployed by 24,000 weekly.
“If further de-escalated to alert level 1… 43,000 in employment (versus alert level 2) can be gained per week,” NEDA said.
The data also showed, and as reported by Malaya Business Insight, easing of restrictions from alert level 3 to 2 can increase gross domestic product (GDP) by P3.6 billion weekly,
while bringing it down from level 2 to 1 translates to P10.3 billion gained per week.
From alert level 4 to 3, the additional weekly output in NCR has been updated to P5.8 billion.
For areas outside NCR, the shift from alert level 4 to 3 will translate to P7.5 billion weekly gain in gross value added and will reduce the number of unemployed by 31,000; from alert level 3 to 2, P4.7 billion and 20,000 more jobs; and from alert level 2 to 1, P13.3 billion and 56,000 additional jobs.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases eased the level of restriction in the NCR to alert level 3 from October 16 to 31, amid the improving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation.
The government expanded the implementation of the alert level system to 15 provinces and four cities starting Wednesday last week after pilot-testing it in NCR from September 16 to 30 with alert level 4 and extending it to October 15.
NEDA earlier said the easing of restrictions, including the de-escalation of NCR to alert level 3 and the expansion of the alert level system to areas outside the NCR, can increase GDP by around P21 billion a week compared to the previous classification system.
Karl Kendrick Chua, socioeconomic planning secretary, said in an online forum organized by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines yesterday the country’s various economic indicators point to encouraging prospects of economic recovery.
He said this is evident with the continued improvement in manufacturing production, external trade, public infrastructure spending and job creation, and that the government is also proactively monitoring food supply and prices, particularly of pork, to address the elevated inflation rate.
“At present, 77 percent of the economy is still under heightened quarantines. However, the quarantines today cannot be compared with the level of quarantines last year. People have learned to treat the virus as endemic … the economy will continue to grow ,” Chua said.
However, Chua cited NEDA’s study that showed COVID-19 is estimated to cost the economy a total of P41.4 trillion over the next 40 years of which P11 trillion represents the reduction in future wages and productivity.
Chua said there is no point in giving any form of fiscal stimulus if the economy is not allowed to operate.
“If you give a stimulus, then there should be a way for the people to spend it. But if you lock down the economy continuously,there would be little opportunity for that stimulus to be used,” Chua said.
