BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA-CAR) disclosed the region’s economy declined from 5.4 percent in 2013 to 3.2 percent last year due to the reported slowdown in industry and services and the significant drop in agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing (AHFF).
Engr. Olivia Gulla, PSA-CAR interim regional director, cited the industry sector reportedly slowed down from 4.1 percent in 2013 to a dismal 2.7 percent in 2014 primarily because of the decline in the manufacturing, still the sector’s biggest contributor which dropped from 1.4 percent to 0.9 percent; construction that dropped from 18.4 percent to only 11.2 percent and electricity, gas and water supply that slowed down from 15.4 percent to a low 3.7 percent.
However, Gulla revealed mining and quarrying increased from 9.3 percent to 12.4 percent primarily because of the stable mineral production amidst the decline in global metal prices and the increase in construction activities regionwide.
On the other hand, the PSA-CAR official cited the services sector also slowed down at a lesser pace from 8.4 percent in 2013 to 4.8 percent last year considering that all its sub-sectors, except trade and public administration and defense slowed down.
“Trade accelerated to 8.1 percent from 5.5 percent. Public administration and defense also accelerated from 2.2 percent to 2.5 percent. Both finance and real estate, renting and business activities (REBA) dropped from 16.3 percent to 7.1 percent and from 19.7 percent to 6.8 percent, respectively,”Gulla added.
Further, AHFF contracted from 1.3 percent in 2013 to 0.4 percent in 2014 because of the recorded slower growths of agriculture and forestry, which declined by 0.5 percent in 2014 and of fishing, that dropped from 2.6 percent to 2.2 percent last year.
She explained services and industry sectors contributed 1.8 percentage points and 1.4 percentage points, respectively, to the region’s overall gross regional domestic product while AHFF pulled down the region’s economic growth by 0.05 percentage points.
Jadedea Aquino, assistant regional director of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) in the Cordillera, explained the region’s gross domestic product measures the goods and services produced in each of the geo-political regions of the country and provides for an analysis of the regional distribution of the country’s gross domestic product, the industries and factors that contribute to the regional economics, and the pace at which these economics are moving on an annual basis.
From 10 place in 2013 courtesy of the 5.4 percent economic growth, the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) dropped to 15th place among the 17 regions in terms of economic growth in 2014.
The gross regional domestic product is compiled by the PSA with data emanating from the different national government agencies and local governments implementing development projects and delivering basic services to the people.
Aquino explained the CAR is being left out in the various sectors following the drop in the semi-conductor industry of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) based in Loakan and the business process out-sourcing industry which contributed immensely in the region’s economic growth in 2013.