Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua (file photo) MANILA - The domestic economy is expected to remain in expansion mode even with the movement restrictions in the third quarter of 2021. In his speech during the Manila Times virtual 123rd anniversary on Wednesday, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said around 77 percent of the country's economy remains in heightened quarantine but "people appear to have internalized the pandemic already". "In other words, they have made it endemic in their lives and therefore people are simply just moving about with their daily routine and just taking care of themselves. So, I do not think that even with the level of quarantine that we saw in the third quarter, the economy would not be growing. I believe it will be growing because of the data and the change in paradigm, mentality and approach that we are seeing in the last quarter," he said. The government again placed Metro Manila under the stric