The impact of the vaccination of most of the population will eventually make its way to the real economy but it will be “slow going” as the Philippines is among the last countries in Asia to start its inoculation drive, ING Bank head of research and chief economist Rob Carnell told ANC.

"It’s going to start working its way to the real economy once you’ve got enough of these vaccines out. You really do need to get a lot of people vaccinated before you’re going to start seeing the number of daily cases falling and the ability then for the government to really start opening the economy," Carnell said.

Vaccination will work faster in terms of economic recovery rather than further interest rate and reserve requirement cuts, he said.

The Philippines has received an initial 600,000 doses of China's Sinovac. 

At least 487,200 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines are also expected to arrive on Thursday night, Palace spokesman Harry Roque earlier said.

Officials have begun inoculating frontliners in the Philippines on Monday.

Source: ABS-CBN