IF  the Philippine economy grows below 6 percent in the first quarter, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) believes that it will just make the full-year target more difficult to achieve but not impossible to meet.

Neda Director General Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. said the agency has not yet released an official estimate for gross-domestic product growth in the first quarter.

However, he said analysts estimate of a growth rate below 6 percent in the January-to-March period could slow growth but not to a point that would endanger the 7-percent to 8-percent growth target this year.

“A growth of below 6 percent just makes it more difficult to achieve the 7-percent to 8-percent target. It doesn’t make it impossible because, essentially, it is only one-fourth of the pie,” Paderanga said on Monday.

The Neda chief admitted that before the recent spike in oil prices as brought about by the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) crisis and the slowdown in exports brought by the crisis in Japan, the government was fully confident that the 7-percent to 8-percent growth target will be met.

Paderanga said the crises in the Mena and Japan will affect the Philippine economy and could make their target just more difficult to attain.

However, he said the economy will likely gain more momentum in the second half of the year due to increased investor confidence. This, despite analyst’s view that the lower satisfaction rating of the President might dampen investor confidence.

The government is banking on its Public-Private Partnership Projects to bring in the necessary boost to the economy, particularly in the June-to-December period.

Meanwhile, the Socioeconomic Planning secretary explained that in his studies of the “Asian Dragons” such as Singapore, Korea and to some extent, Taiwan, most of their growth patterns were similar to the Philippines’ erratic boom-and -bust cycle before reaching stable and high economic growth.