Growth and Productivity in the Philippines : Winning the Future

To achieve the AmBisyon Natin 2040, the Philippines needs to triple its income per capita in the next two decades. The AmBisyon Natin 2040 is the government’s plan to transform the country into a prosperous middle-class society free of poverty by 2...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/586871537541775427/Growth-and-Productivity-in-the-Philippines-Winning-the-Future
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30450
id okr-10986-30450
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-304502021-09-17T05:10:53Z Growth and Productivity in the Philippines : Winning the Future World Bank ECONOMIC GROWTH PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH LABOR PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH DRIVERS TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY To achieve the AmBisyon Natin 2040, the Philippines needs to triple its income per capita in the next two decades. The AmBisyon Natin 2040 is the government’s plan to transform the country into a prosperous middle-class society free of poverty by 2040. This implies that the Philippine economy needs to grow at an annual average of 6.5 percent in the next 22 years, faster than the average growth of 5.3 percent since 2000—a challenge that only the Asian Tigers and China have managed to accomplish in the past. This report shows that sustaining high growth can only be achieved if the Philippines succeeds in sustaining high Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth while accelerating capital accumulation. To achieve the GDP per capita target by 2040, numerous scenarios regarding the potential mix of growth drivers were evaluated. The first key finding is that sustaining high TFP growth will be crucial to achieve the target. Specifically, the Philippines needs to sustain an average annual TFP growth rate of 1.5 percent or higher in the next 22 years, more than double the world average since 2000. Such a high rate of TFP growth will require deep structural reforms to remove constraints and distortions faced by the private sector. The second key finding is that accelerating capital accumulation in the medium term will be essential to reduce current infrastructure and capital constraints to growth. The Philippines can meet the capital accumulation requirement by doubling the growth rate in the physical investment-to-GDP ratio over the next five years through higher private and public investment, which would require the implementation of important reforms that are highlighted in this report. The top three policy reform areas for sustaining high growth and productivity, prerequisites for achieving Ambisyon Natin 2040 are: (i) improving market competition through regulatory reforms; (ii) improving trade and investment climate policies and regulations; (iii) reducing labor market rigidities and costs. By creating competitive and flexible markets, poverty alleviation is likely to accelerate through more jobs, higher labor productivity, and lower consumer prices. An equal playing field and a regulatory environment that makes it easy to do business encourage firms to enter the market, invest, grow, create jobs, and innovate, leading to higher productivity. Market competition coupled with flexible a labor market and abundant labor supply allows higher productivity to reduce product prices, which increases workers’ real income. As a result of more and higher paid jobs, more people will move out of poverty, helping achieve the AmBisyon Natin 2040 vision of a society free of poverty. 2018-09-26T21:29:04Z 2018-09-26T21:29:04Z 2018-09 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/586871537541775427/Growth-and-Productivity-in-the-Philippines-Winning-the-Future http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30450 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: General Economy, Macroeconomics, and Growth Study Economic & Sector Work East Asia and Pacific Philippines
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ECONOMIC GROWTH
PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
LABOR PRODUCTIVITY
GROWTH DRIVERS
TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY
spellingShingle ECONOMIC GROWTH
PRODUCTIVITY GROWTH
LABOR PRODUCTIVITY
GROWTH DRIVERS
TOTAL FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY
World Bank
Growth and Productivity in the Philippines : Winning the Future
geographic_facet East Asia and Pacific
Philippines
description To achieve the AmBisyon Natin 2040, the Philippines needs to triple its income per capita in the next two decades. The AmBisyon Natin 2040 is the government’s plan to transform the country into a prosperous middle-class society free of poverty by 2040. This implies that the Philippine economy needs to grow at an annual average of 6.5 percent in the next 22 years, faster than the average growth of 5.3 percent since 2000—a challenge that only the Asian Tigers and China have managed to accomplish in the past. This report shows that sustaining high growth can only be achieved if the Philippines succeeds in sustaining high Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth while accelerating capital accumulation. To achieve the GDP per capita target by 2040, numerous scenarios regarding the potential mix of growth drivers were evaluated. The first key finding is that sustaining high TFP growth will be crucial to achieve the target. Specifically, the Philippines needs to sustain an average annual TFP growth rate of 1.5 percent or higher in the next 22 years, more than double the world average since 2000. Such a high rate of TFP growth will require deep structural reforms to remove constraints and distortions faced by the private sector. The second key finding is that accelerating capital accumulation in the medium term will be essential to reduce current infrastructure and capital constraints to growth. The Philippines can meet the capital accumulation requirement by doubling the growth rate in the physical investment-to-GDP ratio over the next five years through higher private and public investment, which would require the implementation of important reforms that are highlighted in this report. The top three policy reform areas for sustaining high growth and productivity, prerequisites for achieving Ambisyon Natin 2040 are: (i) improving market competition through regulatory reforms; (ii) improving trade and investment climate policies and regulations; (iii) reducing labor market rigidities and costs. By creating competitive and flexible markets, poverty alleviation is likely to accelerate through more jobs, higher labor productivity, and lower consumer prices. An equal playing field and a regulatory environment that makes it easy to do business encourage firms to enter the market, invest, grow, create jobs, and innovate, leading to higher productivity. Market competition coupled with flexible a labor market and abundant labor supply allows higher productivity to reduce product prices, which increases workers’ real income. As a result of more and higher paid jobs, more people will move out of poverty, helping achieve the AmBisyon Natin 2040 vision of a society free of poverty.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Growth and Productivity in the Philippines : Winning the Future
title_short Growth and Productivity in the Philippines : Winning the Future
title_full Growth and Productivity in the Philippines : Winning the Future
title_fullStr Growth and Productivity in the Philippines : Winning the Future
title_full_unstemmed Growth and Productivity in the Philippines : Winning the Future
title_sort growth and productivity in the philippines : winning the future
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/586871537541775427/Growth-and-Productivity-in-the-Philippines-Winning-the-Future
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30450
_version_ 1764472156706570240