Eastern Visayas’ economic growth slows down in 2017

TACLOBAN CITY, April 26 -- Eastern Visayas’ economy managed to grow by 1.8 percent in 2017, but the growth is significantly slower than a year ago due to scaling down of post-Yolanda construction activities and decline of farm and fishery output.

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Regional Director Wilma Perante said in a press briefing Thursday the slowdown was driven by poor performance of industry and agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing (AHFF) sectors last year.

The Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) performance nosedived by 10.2 percent from a positive growth of 12 percent in 2016. The region’s growth is way below than the 6.7 percent in the national level.

The industry sector, which accounts 42.6 percent to the GRDP, dropped to negative 1.7 percent from positive 19.5 percent triggered by slump in the construction and mining and quarrying subsectors, according to PSA.

From a remarkable 42.2 percent increase in 2016, the construction subsector’s growth dropped to negative 21 percent last year.

“It was in 2016 when we saw the peak of construction activities alongside Yolanda rehabilitation and reconstruction. The huge funds for rehabilitation was something abnormal in the region. Naturally, it slowed down in 2017,” said NEDA Assistant Regional Director Meylene Rosales.

Also pulling down the performance of industry sector is the electricity, gas, and water supply with 3.1 percent decline.

This is largely due to the damage on Leyte power plants caused by 6.5 magnitude earthquake last July, resulting to month-long power shutdown.

AHFF sector, with a share of only 14.9 percent in the regional economy, declined by 2.3 percent last year as fish catch dropped dramatically.

“The fishing subsector, on the other hand, downscaled by negative 10.1 percent as a result of the reduction in commercial fisheries, brought by the intensified patrol operations, inclement weather and decrease in the number of licensed commercial fishing vessels,” Rosales said.

Services, the second biggest contributor to GRDP (42.5 percent), recorded an increase of 6.2, but still lower by 2.2 percent than the previous year.

The region’s per capita GRDP slightly dipped from PHP37,144 in 2016 to PHP37,125 in 2017. This level, the third lowest in the country, is very much lower than the national average of PHP82,592.

Last year’s GRDP growth is way below than the 5.2 percent to 5.7 percent target set under the ‎2017-2022 Regional Development Plan.

GRDP measures the value of goods and services produced by a region. The figure of all regions sums up to the gross domestic product of a country. (SQM/PNA)