MANILA, Philippines — Inter-regional disparity was “slightly tempered” in 2017, the Department of Finance said, as the less affluent regions grew faster than traditional growth centers. In an economic bulletin, the DOF said data on shares in gross regional domestic product, or GRDP, confirm an earlier finding that regional inequality rose in 2016 but dropped in 2017. Likewise, the share of Southern Tagalog, the country’s manufacturing heartland, dropped from 18.74 percent in 2015 to 18.34 percent in 2017,” the DOF explained. “This will enhance each region’s economic potentials and move the less developed regions closer to the income level of more developed regions,” it added. The Duterte government plans to spend more than P8 trillion to upgrade the country’s dilapidated infrastructure and to supercharge economic growth to 7-8 percent from this year until 2022.

Source: Philippine Star June 01, 2018 06:45 UTC