Key industries post high growth rates in first quarter

MANILA, Philippines—The Total Gross Revenue Index of key sectors of the economy posted high growth rates in the first quarter of 2013 while the Total Employment Index slowed by more than half, according to a report by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

“Total Gross Revenue Index of key industries continued to grow by 9.5 percent in the first quarter of 2013,” NSCB said in its report.

The finance sector “posted the fastest growth at 18.1 percent from 12.7 percent” while at second is “private services with an accelerated growth of 14.8 percent from 9.4 percent in the previous year,” it said.

The real estate sector, which was “the fastest growing industry for the past two years”, posted a growth of 12.1 percent, a deceleration from 28.1 percent the previous year.

Growth in the trade industry slowed to 11.1 percent from 15.9 percent while the manufacturing industry accelerated to 6.6 percent from 1.1 percent.

“On the other hand, transport and communication declined by 0.1 percent from a growth of 8.8 percent,” NSCB said.

“Total Employment Index slowed down to 1.3 percent from a growth of 3.0 percent in the previous year. This was due to the slower growths in Manufacturing and Real Estate sectors,” it added.

Employment growth in transportation and communication was at negative 3.2 percent while in the trade industry it was negative 1.8 percent.

There was however positive employment growth of 11.4 percent in the mining and quarrying industry as well as 6.7 percent in the private services sector, NSCB said.

Growth in the compensation of workers remained relatively stable at 8 percent for the first quarter of 2013 compared to 8.8 percent a year ago, it said.

“Mining and quarrying recorded the fastest growth at 18.0 percent from 11.2 percent. This was followed by transportation and communication at 15.8 percent, which expanded from its 3.7 percent growth in 2012,” the NSCB report said.

“With compensation growing faster than employment, Total Compensation per Employee Index accelerated to 6.6 percent from 5.7 percent in the previous year,” it said.

The transport and communication industry led the growth of the Compensation per Employee Index with 19.7 percent growth but was hindered by the real estate sector which declined by 5.1 percent.

“This report is based on the July 2013 issue of the Quarterly Economic Indices (QEI) of the Philippines,” NSCB said.