All boats

Here’s another one for the morons who said the people cannot eat the GDP — nor the Phisix for that matter.

In the previous column, I argued that the GDP growth rate reflects the national bottom line, the sum of all the wealth-creation we have done. Like the tide that raises all boats, a growing economy benefits all — with only the possible exception of those who refuse to be part of the community’s wealth-creation process.

A robust economy draws in investments. Investments create jobs. Jobs fuel consumer demand. That, in turn, encourages more enterprise. This is a virtuous cycle.

In a word, while people cannot literally eat the GDP, a strong growth performance enables more people to eat better. And for those who plant and process food, the opportunity to sell more.

A stable economic environment with low inflation rates also encourages people to save and invest. I take from the latest economic data that we have lifted our national savings rate to the Asian standard where, only years before, it was only half that of our neighbors.

That is one outcome of a low inflation environment. It is also a function of smaller public sector deficits.

A high inflation regime pushes people to buy rather than save, hoping to conserve the rapidly diminishing purchasing power of their money and hoping to profit from escalating prices. High inflation encourages a speculative economy with little incentive for long-term investments. A low inflation regime has the opposite dynamic and encourages positive economic behavior among individuals.

For decades, our savings rate was low because government was "dis-saving" by incurring chronic deficits and financing that by horrendous borrowing. That brought down our savings rate and, consequently, our investment rate. The net result is job shortage and widening poverty.

In the last six years, more prudent fiscal management brought down deficits and along with it inflation and interest rates. That will bear good fruit. It will encourage more investments — both among corporate entities as well as individuals.

The positive trends now benefiting our economy has also, it turned out, helped rescue many of our once declining institutions. One of these institutions, the public pension system, was only a few years ago considered decrepit — with an actuarial life so short that it was expected to be bankrupt by the time many of our young workers today expect to retire and enjoy their pensions.

Today, the GSIS enjoys an actuarial life of a century or more. By that time, global warming might have taken its disastrous toll, but the public pension funds will still be paying pensions.

I do not know if this impresses my son, who has just started out his working life. But it does impress me, as I look forward to a pension stream that will at least allow me to golf regularly.

The nearly miraculous rescue of the GSIS was undertaken by Winston Garcia, whose head the militant public sector unions demanded when he began painful reforms in a decrepit institution. In 2002, with so much uncollected premiums and unsettled loan obligations, the actuarial life of the GSIS was expected to end before 2030. Today, the GSIS will be viable at least until 2100.

Against stiff resistance from the militant unions, Winston computerized the pension fund’s records. In the process he cleaned up the records and purged the membership base of non-existent pensioners. The membership list of the GSIS was dramatically cut down from 2.7 million to 1.3 million — or less than half.

With the record of payment of premiums and loan amortizations cleaned up, the fund was able to save billions by eliminating fraudulent claims. Then, with the introduction of the eCard, delivery of benefits to members now happens in real time.

A better run institution, the GSIS escalated its profitability. That profitability was magnified over the past few weeks when, taking advantage of excellent stock market conditions, the GSIS unloaded P25 billion in blue chip stocks, realizing a gain of P9.7 billion in a matter of days. Garcia projects that by the end of the year, the fund is forecast to gain up to P15 billion from the sale of stocks alone.

The biggest chunk of the blue chip sales sold by GSIS was composed of 199.35 million common shares in San Miguel Corporation. The fund was able to do a bulk sale at 10% above the closing price of P65 per share on April 12. That deal alone allowed the GSIS a trading gain of P5.7 billion — money the fund can use to improve its financial position and increase its ability to finance the nation’s development.

That remarkable market maneuver done by GSIS benefits all the members, whether they are market players or not. It certainly benefits an ordinary GSIS member like me. Because the more robust funds are now available for investments by the GSIS, that will indirectly benefit all Filipinos — whether they are members of the fund or not.

Could a financial coup such as that pulled last week by the GSIS have been possible if the stock market was lackadaisical, if investor interest in our economy was on the wane and if our future was under great doubt?

Certainly not.

And the GSIS is just one more boat rising with the tide of confidence in our nation’s economic future.

Can people eat the Phisix? Well, eventually and indirectly, they will. To be sure, the militant unionists at the GSIS can begin by eating the effigy of Winston they once wanted to burn.