The easing of restrictions and expansion of the alert level system outside Metro Manila can boost the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by P21 billion a week, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said over the weekend.
The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) earlier decided to ease the level of restriction in the National Capital Region (NCR) to alert level 3 from October 16 to 31, amid the improving coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation in the region.
The government also expanded the implementation of the alert level system into 15 provinces and four cities starting last Wednesday.
“The easing of restrictions, including the de-escalation of NCR to alert level 3 and the expansion of the alert level system to areas outside the NCR, can increase GDP by around P21 billion a week compared to the previous classification system,” NEDA said in a Viber message to Malaya Business Insight.
The government piloted the new alert system in Metro Manila from September 16 to 30 with alert level 4 and extended it up to October 15. This was further downgraded to alert level 3 in the second half of the month due to the decline in COVID-19 cases and reduced hospital utilization.
“Per the computation of NEDA technical staff, the de-escalation from alert level 4 to alert level 3 in NCR will result in additional output worth P7.1 billion per week,” Karl Kendrick Chua, socioeconomic planning secretary, said last week.
Under IATF resolution 14-D, alert level 4 is implemented in the provinces of Negros Oriental and Davao Occidental while placed under alert level 3 are the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Rizal, Siquijor, Davao del Norte and Davao City.
