Philippines enters recession with record 16.5% GDP drop

By Pizaro Gozali Idrus

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AA) – The Philippine economy shrunk 16.5% in the second quarter of 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage the country.

The latest figure is the lowest quarterly growth recorded since 1981, bringing the country to a technical recession.

“The main contributors to the decline were manufacturing (21.3%), construction (33.5%), and transportation and storage (59.2%),” said Dennis Mapa, the head of the Philippine statistics authority, in a virtual briefing on Thursday.

Among the major economic sectors, only agriculture, forestry and fishing expanded with 1.6% growth.

On the other hand, both industry and services narrowed 22.9% and 15.8% respectively.

Mapa also announced that the government’s Final Consumption Expenditure posted positive growth of 22.1%.

As for the net primary income from the rest of the world and gross national income, both declined 22.0% and 17.0% respectively.

The official added that the economic slowdown was partly because of the April-May coronavirus lockdown.

The country reported 3,561 more cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, bringing the total tally to 119,460. As of today, 2,150 patients have died while 66,837 others have recovered.

*Writing by Maria Elisa Hospita from Anadolu Agency's Indonesian-language service in Jakarta.