And short-term external debt-to-foreign reserve ratios have remained healthy in recent years. All that said, you may be asking yourself, what can go wrong? Friends, the Philippines has come a long way and we want to go farther, higher. We want to be a stronger, more inclusive economy.
Surely, the report on the 5.2 percent Q1 GDP growth came as a surprise to many of us here – is this cause for worry? I would tend to agree with what Sec. Balisacan said that it’s too early to abandon our 7–8 percent growth target. After all this is just one data point.