Economy sustains expansion in Q2 2022 in Philippines: NEDA

The growth figure released by the Philippine Statistics Authority makes the country the second best-performing nation among the region’s major emerging economies that have released their second quarter reports, he said in a statement.

“Our country is next to Vietnam’s 7.7 per cent but faster than Indonesia’s 5.4 per cent and China’s 0.4 per cent. This performance also remains in line with our expectations, or our expected 6.5 to 7.5 per cent growth in 2022,” he said.

Timely changes in COVID-related policies, such as easing alert levels, removing tourism restrictions, and accelerated vaccine rollout, helped increase economic activities in the country.

As of June 2022, around 85 per cent of the economy is already under Alert Level 1.

All sectors on the production side expanded in the second quarter, driven by the services and industry sectors at 9.1 per cent and 6.3 per cent respectively, he said.

The agriculture sector remained weak at 0.2 per cent growth as the sector remains vulnerable to natural calamities and rising input costs, he said.

Given the agriculture sector’s weak performance, the government will provide support through lower input costs, access to new farming technologies, financial assistance to farmers and strengthening the agricultural value chain, he said.

Meanwhile, the manufacturing sector’s growth decelerated to 2.1 per cent in the second quarter, down from 22.4 per cent in the same quarter last year. The slowdown was due to the weaker growth in computers, electronic and optical products, chemical and chemical products, and food products, he said.

The slowdown may be due to inflationary pressures brought about by the Russia-Ukraine war, weakening global demand, and supply chain disruptions brought by lockdowns in China, he said.

The trade sector grew by 9.7 percent in the second quarter from 5.4 per cent in the same period last year, he added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)