NEDA’s Chua: Economy to gain P16.5B each week entire Philippines is under Alert Level 1

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua on Tuesday expressed optimism that the entire Philippines will shift to the most lenient quarantine alert level soon, noting it will add billions of pesos and hundreds of thousands of jobs to the economy.

“Sana sa susunod na linggo ay maging green o Alert Level 1 na ang buong bansa. Kaya naman ‘yan kung tayo ay magtutulungan (I hope next week, the entire country will be in green or Alert Level. This is achievable if we help each other)… if we cooperate and follow the minimum health standards,” Chua said during the Palace briefing.

The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) placed the National Capital Region (NCR), the country’s economic center, and 38 other areas under a COVID-19 Alert Level 1 from March 1, 2022 until March 15, 2022; while the rest of the country is under Alert Level 2.

Under Alert Level 1, businesses will be allowed to operate at 100% operating capacity. There will be no more age restrictions. Physical barriers will be removed and digital contact tracing will be optional.

Chua said moving 39 areas under Alert Level 1 will benefit 62% of the economy and 20.3 million workers.

The shift to the most lenient COVID-19 alert level will also add P9.4 billion per week to the economy, P3 billion more per week in salaries, and there will be 170,000 less unemployed over the next quarter.

Should the entire country be placed under Alert Level 1, Chua said, “Mas malaki ang benepisyo (The benefit will be much bigger).”

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) chief said that “P16.5 billion more per week ang maidadagdag natin sa ating (will be added to) GDP [gross domestic product] or economy, of which P5.2 billion more in salaries per week.”

“Mababawasan ang unemployed (Unemployed people will be reduced) by 297,000 over the next quarter,” the country’s chief economist said.

The NEDA chief said the tourism sector, which was the most hit when the country was placed under strict quarantine since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020, will benefit the most with the shift to Alert Level 1.

“The contribution of domestic to the economy fell by P1.5 trillion in 2020 or 7.4% of GDP,” Chua said.

“At least half of that or P750 billion can be recovered with a shift to Alert Level 1,” he added.

The country’s chief economist noted that transport, hotels, malls, and restaurants are expected to further improve from 40% to 85% actual capacity under Alert Level 2, prior to the Omicron surge, to around 70% to 100% under Alert Level 1.

Meanwhile, with the shift to Alert Level 1 of Metro Manila and 38 other areas from March 1 to 15, 2022, the government is encouraging the full return of the work at office setup to stimulate spending and shore up the economy.—AOL, GMA News