Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said on Thursday that the country is on its way to achieving its targets for high growth and financial inclusion for the rest of the Duterte presidency as the government enjoys enough fiscal space to further accelerate spending on its core programs–infrastructure and human capital development—meant to keep up the Philippines’ status as one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies.

Dominguez said an even more aggressive spending from hereon on the “Build, Build, Build” program and other poverty-reduction initiatives would let the Duterte Administration hit its target of a GDP (Gross Domestic Product) expansion of 7 percent or better and a reduced poverty-incidence rate of 14 percent over the medium term.

“President Duterte’s commitment to attaining an investment-led and inclusive economy via a massive public spending strategy would usher in what the Asian Development Bank (ADB) has forecast to be the ‘golden age’ of the​ Philippines’ economic growth​,” said Dominguez, following today’s announcement by the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) of a GDP growth of 6.8 percent in the year’s first quarter.

The PSA said in its report that the industry sector recorded the fastest growth at 7.9 percent, while the services sector expanded 7.0 percent and agriculture. 1.5 percent.

According to the PSA, the services sector had the highest contribution to GDP growth with 4.0 percentage points, followed by industry with 2.7 percentage points and agriculture with 0.1 percentage points.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia noted that this quarter’s GDP growth was the 10th straight quarter of economic expansion at above 6.5 percent.

“With President Duterte’s foreign policy recalibration, which has enabled the government to secure ODA (official development assistance) from our friends in the region plus grants and concessional loans from multilateral institutions; above-target performance by our revenue agencies as a result of the TRAIN (Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion) Law; and investment-grade credit ratings responsible for successful bond floats here and abroad, the government now enjoys a large headroom for high—and inclusive–growth,” Dominguez said.

He noted that the government’s unprecedented investments in physical and human infrastructure would supercharge the economy; attract more investments, create a lot more jobs, especially for our young workforce; and liberate millions of Filipinos from poverty—which are in keeping with President Duterte’s electoral mandate.

The “Build, Build, Build” program is now in full swing, he bared, with 75 big-ticket infrastructure projects worth $170 billion and designed to reverse regional underdevelopment and income inequality by creating growth corridors all over the country.

“Of these projects, 35 have already passed the approval process while the rest are expected to get the go-ahead before yearend,” he said.

“Our people will feel the economic benefits of these projects soon enough and our country would move up to upper middle-income status by the time the President leaves office in 2022,” he said.

He said that in the first three months of 2018 to March, the TRAIN Law has already delivered on its promise to help provide a steady revenue flow for the government’s massive investment program.

Thanks to the TRAIN, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P423.1 billion or a 14 percent rise year-on-year (YOY) in the first quarter, while the Bureau of Customs (BOC) collected P129.8 billion or a 25 percent increase from the same quarter in 2017, said Dominguez in citing Bureau of Treasury (BTr) data.

As a result, he said, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) reported total government disbursements of P782 billion, or a 27 percent increase YOY. Of this amount, P157.1 billion went to infrastructure spending, or a 34 percent increase from the year-ago amount.

Dominguez said revenue collections would go up further with the succeeding packages of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP), which the Congress is expected to act on this year.

Aside from the unprecedented infrastructure spending, he said that economic experts have also traced the high GDP growth in the first quarter to strong domestic consumption, which is apparently a result of households’ bigger disposable income arising from the hefty personal income tax (PIT) cuts under the TRAIN Law.

He said that consumers now enjoy a cash windfall of about P10 billion combined each month as a result of the TRAIN’s PIT reductions, which benefit 99 percent of taxpayers.

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