Bicol growth performance slows down

By Mar S. Arguelles LEGAZPI CITY --- Bicol’s economic growth fell by 3.2 percentage point in 2016 or 5.7 percent growth as compared to the 8.9 percent growth recorded in 2015 owing it to the slowdown in the Industry and Services sectors, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in Bicol said today. Despite the growth rate slowdown Bicol was able to sustain its growth expansion significantly within the standard set by the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) the PSA report said. The deceleration could be attributed to the slowdown in the implementation of public and private construction projects accounting only for 7.1 percent or P20.2 billion contribution to the RGRDP last year. Cynthia Perdiz, PSA Bicol regional director said Bicol economic growth pulled a P164.3 billion in RGDP with Services posting the largest contributor at 56.7 percent or P93.2 billion, followed by Industry at 23.2 percent or P38.2 billion and Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing (AHFF) at P33 billion or 20 percent. Bicol, under the GRDP current prices level last year has posted a 5.7 percent share to GRDP or P164 billions of goods and services, while in 2015 it has produced a significant increase of 8.4 percent or P155 billions, a far cry from the sluggish GRDP performance of P142 billion output in 2014, the PSA data said. While based on the GRDP at constant prices including inflation rate the region last year has produced P307 billion goods and services, while posting a P282 billion GRDP in 2015, P264 billion in 2014 while producing only P243.8 billion in 2013. The P164 billion worth of goods and services produced made the region rank 9th among 17 regions in the country. Bicol’s GRDP only contributed 0.1 percent to the country’s GDP of 6.8 percent.