I am heartened by the fact that President-elect Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (BBM) has formed a strong economic team. The appointment of Arsenio "Arsi" Balisacan as head of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA), Benjamin Diokno as Finance secretary and Felipe Medalla as BSP governor, will mean that there will be economic policy continuity from the Duterte administration to the incoming BBM administration. Such policy continuity is so critical to allay investors' fears, as the nation faces myriads of economic challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic and now, the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Covid-19 resulted in the loss of jobs and incomes among our workers leading to a contraction of the economy. NEDA estimated that we lost around P3 trillion during the pandemic that halted our march to becoming an upper-middle-income economy by 2023. It is projected that our pre-pandemic economic growth rate can return to normal by 2025 assuming that the economy grows by at least 6 percent or higher for the next three years. Indicators are pointing to this being in the realm of possibility, given the impressive rebound of our economy for the first quarter of this year. The trend is likely to continue as we open further the economy, choked in the past by the series of lockdowns we had during the height of the pandemic.

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