ECONOMIC REBOUND. Tacloban City, the capital of Eastern Visayas in this April 9, 2022 photo. The economy of Eastern Visayas has grown 6 percent in 2021 largely due to more eased movement restrictions, but still far from the pre-pandemic level, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday (April 28, 2022). (Photo courtesy of I Love Tacloban)
TACLOBAN CITY – The Eastern Visayas economy has grown 6 percent in 2021 largely due to more eased movement restrictions, but still far from the pre-pandemic level, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday.
The performance is a big jump from the negative 7.4 percent growth of the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) recorded in 2020.
The growth is largely driven by the positive performance of all major industries, said PSA Eastern Visayas Regional Director Wilma Perante in a press briefing at the Summit Hotel here.
“The total value of goods and services in the region as measured by the GRDP increased to PHP461 billion in 2021 from PHP438.8 billion in 2020, resulting in PHP26.2 billion economic gains.
"This level, however, is still PHP8.3 billion lower compared with the 2019 pre-pandemic level,” Perante said.
The PSA estimated the region needs to register an additional 1.8 percent growth to attain the 2019 economic performance again.
The PSA said the services sector, which accounts for 45.7 percent of the regional economy, grew by 6.2 percent last year.
The remarkable performance of the services sector was driven by the human health and social work activities subsector.
“Industry sector, which contributes 40.4 percent to the regional economy, rebounded to eight percent in 2021 from a negative eight percent decline in 2020. Construction, and mining and quarrying grew by 10.3 percent and 60.6 percent, respectively,” Perante told reporters.
Meanwhile, agriculture, forestry, and fishing (AFF) sector managed to grow slower by 0.1 percent in 2021 from 0.9 percent in 2020. The AFF’s share of the GRDP is only 0.02 percent.
GRDP measures the value of goods and services produced by a region.
The figure for all regions sums up the gross domestic product of a country. (PNA)
