2020 PH econ growth revised to -9.6 percent

The contraction of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) was revised downward to -9.6 percent from the earlier -9.5 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

“Gross domestic product (GDP) for the fourth quarter of 2020 maintained its growth rate of -8.3 percent while annual growth rate of GDP for 2020 was revised downward from -9.5 percent to -9.6 percent,” National Statistician and Civil Registrar Dennis Mapa said in a report.
Mapa said revisions on the estimates are based on the updated data submissions by source agencies.

“The PSA revises the GDP estimates based on an approved revision policy (PSA Board Resolution 1, Series of 2017-053), which is consistent with international standard practices on national accounts revisions,” said Mapa.

The Philippines has been under different levels of community quarantine since March last year.

Last year’s economic contraction was the worst recorded since after World War 2.

In a separate Viber message to reporters, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Acting Secretary Karl Chua said the revision is “due to the latest full year data.”
“We always update as needed if new data are available,” he said.

Asked whether the revision will affect the outlook for the rest of the year, Chua said “we don’t look at one month data. We look at a trend.”

For this year, the government is projecting 6.5- to 7.5-percent economic growth.

The government earlier placed the National Capital Region and the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, and Rizal, or “NCR Plus,” under enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) due to the sharp increase in the number of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases.

Chua said the more stringent quarantine in NCR Plus translates to a daily household income loss of $2.1 billion or almost $30 billion for the two-week period.

He pointed out that all in all, the two-week ECQ may shave off 0.8 percentage points from the country’s full-year economic growth in 2021.