MANILA, March 31 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' economic growth is projected to "significantly decelerate" to three percent this year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Bank said in a report released on Tuesday.
"Real gross domestic product growth is projected to significantly decelerate from 5.9 percent in 2019 to 3.0 percent in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak and the associated community quarantine," said the report titled "East Asia and Pacific in the Time of COVID-19".
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on March 16 placed the main island of Luzon, including Metro Manila, under an enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to restrict personal movement in a bid to prevent the exponential spread of the virus.
The quarantine restricts all nonessential movement of people and closed down businesses and government agencies in Luzon -- which accounts for 70 percent of the national GDP -- until April 13.
The report says the southeast Asian country's growth outlook for 2020 is gloomy given the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict community quarantine that has taken place in Luzon.
"These are expected to slow down the progress on poverty reduction, and have prompted the government to announce a stimulus package to boost the economy from the economic impact of the outbreak," the report says.
According to the report, domestic consumption is expected to slow down sharply in the first half of 2020.
In addition, the report says that the implementation of a public infrastructure program is expected to be delayed and private sector investment to be postponed.
Furthermore, the report says that travel bans and the COVID-19 outbreaks in overseas Filipino workers (OFW)-destination countries are likely to affect the inflow of remittances in 2020, further damping domestic consumption growth.
Nevertheless, the report predicts that the economic growth is expected to accelerate rapidly in 2021-2022 as global conditions improve, and with more robust domestic activity bolstered by the public investment momentum and a boost from 2022 election-related spending.
The Philippines now has 1,546 COVID-19 cases, including 78 deaths. A total of 42 patients have recovered.
In a televised address to the nation late on Monday night, Duterte said his administration "is now undertaking measures to overcome and recover from the effects" of the pandemic.
"The government is now launching the largest and widest social protection program in our country's history to make up for the loss of economic opportunities due to the quarantine measures in place for COVID-19," he said, adding that the government has allocated 200 billion pesos (about 3.94 billion U.S. dollars) to the country's poor.
