MANILA -- The Marcos government is poised to achieving its targets set in the Philippine Development Plan 2023-2028 (PDP) with the country’s good economic performance, particularly in taming inflation and improving employment situation following the coronavirus pandemic, a socioeconomic planning official said on Saturday.

“So, nakita natin na for December 2023 ang unemployment rate po natin went down to its lowest since 2005 – nasa 3.1 percent siya; iyong December of 2022 galing po siya ng 4.3 percent,” Socioeconomic Planning Undersecretary Rosemarie Edillon said in a news forum in Quezon City.

“And the other good news about this, iyong stats na ito ay tumaas din po iyong tinatawag nating participation rate. So, this time tumaas po iyong ating labor force participation rate – it’s now at 66.6 o two thirds from 66.4 noong the year before,” she said.

Another good development was the job creation in the industrial sector – almost 900,000; followed by agriculture with more than 500,000; and services at 100,000.

The industrial sector has the biggest contribution in terms of subsector covering construction, and it is consistent with the administration’s priority of boosting infrastructure development not just at the national level but also involving local government units.

The latest data on inflation is also good, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) official.

“That’s another piece of good news po. Actually po, patuloy nang patuloy naman iyong pagbaba ng inflation natin so that in January of this year 2.8 percent na po ang ating inflation,” Edillon said.

“So, talaga pong pababa ang ating trend. And actually, almost all sectors po nag-decline iyong inflation natin, ang isa lang medyo sticky iyong rice and it’s really because ang taas ng bilihan ng palay noong fourth quarter of last year,” she added.

The NEDA official also said that overall, food inflation actually went down.

The NEDA has already presented to the President the Philippine Development Report 2023, reporting the government’s accomplishments in the initial implementation of PDP, Edillon said, stressing the relevance of the administration’s strategies in its transformation agenda.

“We took note of the lessons learned and we have made a conclusion that one, iyong strategies natin in the PDP remain relevant kasi nag-scenario scan din po kami for domestic and external shocks na posible – relevant pa rin po iyong ating strategies which is the transformation agenda,” she said.

“If we incorporate iyong mga lessons learned natin from the 2023 implementation, then we will have more chances of really achieving the targets that we have set in the PDP,” she stressed. (PND)