The Philippine government maintained on Thursday that it can meet the 7-8 percent economic growth target for this year despite the absence of election spending that boosted the economy last year.
Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Secretary Ricky Carandang said that there are other fiscal stimulus that could push upward the country's economy for this year.
"We have a 7-8 percent growth target this year. I feel that there is enough stimulus in this 2011 budget," he said.
Carandang cited the budget for social spending, such as for conditional cash transfer program, health care and education.
"There is plenty of stimulus there. So I don't think that we are going to be revising those numbers anytime soon," he said.
But Carandang added that as a general policy of the government, given a choice between a slower growth that is more even and faster growth that is uneven, "we would rather go with slower but more even growth."
The Southeast Asian country's gross domestic product expanded by 7.3 percent in 2010 with election spending as one of the major drivers./.