Habito: Employment gains not enough for PH
Employment improvements as of July do not mean the Philippine economy has improved significantly, a former Cabinet official said, given issues such as inflation having hit a new nine-year high.
In a speech at the Chamber of Thrift Banks (CTB) General Membership meeting at a hotel in Makati City, former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Cielito Habito said this week’s announcement that more Filipinos had jobs was not enough for the Philippines to be considered better off today than in the past.
“[I]f we will look at that figures, it only means that OFWs have jobs when they go home,” he added.
His remarks came after the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Wednesday that unemployment eased to 5.4 percent from 5.6 percent a year ago and underemployment rose to 17.2 percent from 16.3 percent.
NEDA noted that the latest employment rate (94.6 percent from 94.4 percent) was the highest in a decade for the July rounds of the PSA’s Labor Force Survey.
Total employment rose to 40.7 million, it said.
In his speech, Habito said that while there were positive notes about the economy, there were more negative developments that needed to be corrected.
On inflation, which reached a nine-year high at 6.4 percent for August, Habito said it was “not a laughing matter.”
Bangko Sentral ng Pilpinas (BSP) officials are in a bind, he added, because an earlier reserve requirement reduction in a way contributed to the rise in comsumer prices.
The former Socioeconomic Planning chief blamed oil price increases and mismanaged rice supply as the causes of the inflation spike, which exceeded the 5.9 percent forecasts of the BSP and the Department of Finance and the 5.8 percent average forecast of economists surveyed by The Manila Times.
WITH MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO
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