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Bold growth projection rate: Sen. Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday, September 8, 2021, raises concern over the “bold, ambitious” growth rate being projected by the country’s economic managers, considering that the country’s economy is not moving forward because of the pandemic. Lacson, during the Committee on Finance briefing of the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC) on the proposed P5.024-trillion National Expenditure Program for 2022, said the DBCC showed 6 to 7 percent growth in the gross (GDP) domestic product for 2021. “But if we go back a little to year 2020, our GDP for 2020 was -9.6 percent. So I would just like to be clarified how can we achieve the projection of the real GDP growth of 6 to 7 percent, when we will be coming from -9.6 percent in 2020. It seems that the assumption is too bold to achieve 6 to 7 percent growth rate for 2021,” Lacson said, adding that as of August 2021, the projection was 4 to 5 percent. Socio-economic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua explained that the 6 to 7 percent GDP growth was very feasible prior to COVID-19 Delta variant virus surge. “I would like to emphasize that we are in a very fluid situation right now. So, prior to Delta, the 6 to 7 (percent) was very feasible, especially with the second quarter GDP number. But with the Delta we had to revise to 4 to 5 percent,” Chua said. (Screen grab/Senate PRIB)