The economy’s contraction in 2020 was worse than what was initially reported, as it shrank by 9.6 percent last year, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) yesterday showed.
The full-year gross domestic product (GDP) for 2020 was revised from its preliminary estimate of a decline of 9.5 percent.
“These are due to the latest full year data. We always update as needed if new data are available,” said Karl Kendrick Chua, acting socioeconomic planning secretary.
“Revisions on the estimates are based on the updated data submissions/releases by the data source agencies. The PSA revises the GDP estimates based on an approved revision policy which is consistent with international standard practices on national accounts revisions,” the PSA said.
The government earlier said the 9.5 percent contraction that was initially reported was the lowest since 1946, when the government started collecting the annual data for the GDP.
The sharp decline is due to the coronavirus disease 2019-induced crisis, as well as quarantine measures that had to be implemented to address the spread of the virus.
For this year, the Development Budget Coordination Committee’s GDP estimate is a growth of 6.5 to 7.5 percent.
However, Chua said that the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National
Capital Region and adjacent provinces may shave off 0.8 percentage points from the country’s full year economic growth in 2021. – Angela Celis
