MANILA, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Philippine economy grew by 5.6 percent in 2021 after expanding by 7.7 percent in the fourth quarter, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.

"On an annual basis, 2021 GDP (gross domestic product) grew by 5.6 percent from a decline of 9.6 percent in 2020," PSA head Dennis Mapa told a virtual press conference.

Among the major economic sectors, Mapa said industry and services registering growth of 8.2 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively, were the main contributors to the full-year growth. Meanwhile, he added that agriculture, forestry and fishing contracted by 0.3 percent.

On the demand side, household final consumption expenditure grew by 4.2 recent; government final consumption expenditure, 7.0 percent; gross capital formation, 19.0 percent; exports, 7.8 percent; and imports, 12.9 percent.

"The door to our economic recovery is now fully opened. The numbers for 2021 show an economy prime to break out," Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua said at the same news conference.

Chua said the 2021 growth "exceeds the Development Budget Coordination Committee's target of 5.0 to 5.5 percent," attributing "sustained growth" to the government's successful management of COVID-19 risks.

"Our policies to move from a pandemic to a more endemic paradigm have led to broad-based expansions across almost all sectors despite challenges brought about by the continued persistence of COVID-19, various levels of quarantines, and prevalence of natural disasters," Chua said.

The Philippines now has 3,475,293 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 53,664 deaths.

The government is ramping up the vaccination of citizens amid fast spread of the Omicron variant in communities. The country has fully vaccinated over 57.5 million since the rollout in March last year. Enditem

Related

Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)