Duterte more of a ‘reformer,’ The Economist says
MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte is an economic “reformer,” taking on unfair labor practices and rice import policy in his first year in office, a journalist for The Economist said Friday.
Notwithstanding the President’s approval of a law granting free tuition in state colleges, “for the most part, the economy has been populism-proof,” according to the magazine’s Southeast Asia correspondent, Miranda Johnson.
“For the most part, the President is more a reformer than a wrecker when it comes to economic matters,” Johnson told ANC’s Market Edge with Cathy Yang.
The President has a “very competent” economic team and Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez has a “very significant” role to play in tempering potentially “flamboyant” ideas, she said.
Gross domestic product grew 6.5 percent in the second quarter, exceeding expectations and picking up from the previous 3 months as government spending on infrastructure offset a slowdown in private investments. (ABS-CBN News)
