MANILA: Ferdinand Marcos Jr starts his six-year phrase as Philippines leader on Thursday (Jun 30) facing a host of difficulties, from rising pumpiing and COVID-19 outbreak recovery to balancing relations between competing superpowers the United States and China.
The 64-year-old, who may be allowed only one phrase in the top work, has yet to fill all Cabinet posts, but he has so far nominated experienced technocrats to handle the particular economy, helping to relieve some market anxieties about his obama administration and policy inexperience.
WHAT ARE THE INSTANT PRIORITIES?
Marcos Jr is getting an economy that is on a solid ground after bouncing back again from the worst from the pandemic, but he can be under pressure in order to sustain that recovery while battling increasing inflation. Taming it will probably be his top priority.
Having promised during the campaign to halve the cost of rice, the national staple, Marcos Jr has designated himself agriculture minister, citing the immediate need to boost farm production to improve food security and also keep food costs under control.
Rising inflation driven simply by higher food and gas costs has motivated the Philippines to join global peers in starting to dial back policy stimulus. The brand new central bank chief excutive Felipe Medalla provides signalled the prospect of the series of gradual rate of interest hikes to overcome runaway inflation.
WHAT ABOUT LONGER-TERM TASKS?
Weak facilities has long been an impediment to attracting international investment in the Philippines, and upgrades in order to ports, roads, rail, air terminals, power transmission and utilities are long overdue.
The Marcos Jr team has said that it was open to tapping private funds for infrastructure and might continue his precursor Rodrigo Duterte’s pandemic-delayed “Build, Build, Build” programme.
Advancing this would help Marcos Jr show real results, while producing jobs and international investor interest.
However , to avoid constraints on funding, Marcos Jr and his economic team will also have to control government financial debt that had ballooned to 60. five per cent of gross domestic product in late 2021, the highest percentage in 16 many years, from 39. 6 per cent before the pandemic.
His finance minister, Benjamin Diokno, said that he prefers to focus on improving tax administration and selection, including reducing problem, than raising taxes, to boost revenues.
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