PH in 2021 – from recession to recovery

The Philippines fell into recession in 2020, like many other nations in the world, as the COVID-19 pandemic stopped virtually all economic activity. The country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) fell by 16.5 percent in the second quarter of April-May-June from the previous year, the biggest slump since GDP recording started in 1981.

Manufacturing was down by 21 percent; construction, down by 33.5 percent; transportation and storage, down by 59.2 percent; industry and services, down by 22.9 percent; services, down by 15.8 percent; household expenditures, down by 15.5 percent; exports and imports, down by 37 and 40 percent, respectively. Among the major economic sectors, only agriculture, forestry, and fishing recorded growth and this was by only 1.6 percent.

That was at the height – rather the depth – of the country’s recession in the middle of 2020.