As has been the tradition, the first issue for the year contains the Institute`s assessment of the country`s economic performance in 2013 and the prospects for 2014. Our president, Dr. Gilberto Llanto, teamed up with Senior Research Fellow Dr. Adoracion Navarro for this annual exercise that will form part of a forthcoming publication of the Institute, the Economic Policy Monitor. The outlook is still "generally positive" despite events of the past year that could still have spillover effects this year, in particular, the devastation brought by Typhoon Yolanda. Tighter monetary policy and the end to the US Federal Reserve`s quantitative easing that had brought tremendous liquidity to emerging economies and buoyed financial markets are also expected to weigh in on the production of goods and services by the domestic economy.
This issue of the DRN also gives readers a glimpse of the Institute`s activities for the first quarter, particularly its newest research project that is aimed at conducting process and impact evaluation of key government programs. The Institute opened a new PIDS Corner at Palawan State University, which also hosted a well-attended forum on the mining sector, and organized knowledge-sharing seminars for the Health Systems Research Management project of the Institute and the Department of Health.