PSA: 2nd quarter GDP grew 12 percent

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine economy grew 12 percent year-on-year in the second quarter, mainly as it benefitted from a low base when 75 percent of economic activity stopped during the most stringent COVID-19 lockdown from mid-March to May 2020.

On Monday (Nov. 8) the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said second-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth was slightly higher than the earlier estimate of 11.8 percent announced by the government in August.

In a text message, National Statistician Dennis Mapa said the revised second-quarter figure remained the highest quarterly growth rate since the fourth quarter of 1988.

The PSA attributed the adjustment to bigger growth rates posted by the following sectors: construction, up to 27.1 percent from 25.7 percent previously; education, up to 12.6 percent from 10 percent; as well as financial and insurance activities, up to 5.2 percent from 4.2percent.

The PSA said the second-quarter growth in gross national income (GNI) — total income generated by a country’s residents within and outside its borders, or GDP plus income from abroad — also inched up to 6.8 percent from the previously announced 6.6 percent, even as net primary income (NPI) from the rest of the world declined by a bigger 54.4 percent from 53.8 percent previously.

Mapa said first-half GDP growth averaged 3.8 percent, below the government’s full-year target of 4-5 percent expansion.

The government will report on the third-quarter GDP performance on Tuesday, Nov. 9.

Economists polled by the Inquirer last week expected a slower pace of year-on-year economic growth during the third quarter partly due to the lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the more infectious Delta strain of COVID-19 in August. Most of them nonetheless projected a bigger third-quarter output compared to the second quarter’s, signalling gradual economic recovery.

TSB