By Hanie Andade

Last August 6, the Philippine Statistics Authority [PSA] (2020) reported the largest decline in quarterly GDP since the 1981 series. The indicator fell by -16.5 percent year-on-year* in the second quarter [Q2] of 2020. It was during Q2 that the Philippines was under its strictest form of lockdown, ECQ, to contain the growing number of cases of COVID-19 in the country. During these months, numerous industries had declined in productivity, which could be attributed to the various virus prevention methods (e.g., work from home, social distancing). Manufacturing, Construction, and Transportation and Storage had greatly affected the quarterly GDP of the Philippine economy, which was caused by the massive decrease in productivity during this period.

Figure 1.

IndustryPercentage of declineManufacturing-21.3%Construction-33.5%Transportation and Storage-59.2%

The sectors that saw the greatest decline were Services and Industry. It was the Services sector that contributed the most to the GDP drop at -15.8 percent. This sector had a 62.3 percent share of the Q2 2020 GDP, with the Transportation and Storage sub-sector falling under this category. Meanwhile, the Industry sector, which shared 27.7 percent of the Q2 2020 GDP, recorded its lowest ever decline at 22.9 percent. 62.2 percent of this sector consists of Manufacturing, whereas 21.6 percent of the total industry is shared by the Construction sub-industry.

Unlike the two previous sectors, however, it was the Agriculture, Forestry, and Fishing [AFF] sector that saw growth during this period of decline. This sector only grew by 1.6 percent, with its growth dragged down by numerous sub-sectors, a few being: Livestock, -8.92 percent; Poultry and egg production, -4.8 percent; Other animal production, -6.3 percent; Banana, -1.6 percent; as well as Coconut inclusive of copra, -3.1 percent. The AFF sector shared 10 percent of the second-quarter GDP (PSA, 2020).

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