The Philippine economy was already weak coming into the COVID-19\ncrisis, research group IBON said. Growth will remain slow if the government\ndoes not acknowledge pre-existing weaknesses that the pandemic merely\nintensified. The group said that recognizing the problem is the first step to\nthe bold measures needed for long-term growth and development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported -0.2% growth in\ngross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter of 2020, marking a\nsignificant drop from the 5.7% growth in the same period last year. The\nNational Economics and Development Authority (NEDA) attributed this to the Taal\nvolcano eruption in January, decrease in trade and tourism due to COVID-19 in\nFebruary, and the eventual lockdown in March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON said however that the economy was already slowing for three\nconsecutive years and headed for its fourth such year even before COVID-19 came\ninto the picture. Official figures show annual GDP growth falling from 7.1% in\n2016 to 6.9% in 2017, 6.3% in 2018 and 6.0% in 2019. Year-on-year first quarter\ngrowth also reflects this trend, falling from 6.9% in the first quarter of 2016\nto 6.4% in 2017. This slightly increased to 6.5% in 2018 but fell to 5.7% in\n2019. In 2020, first quarter growth dove to -0.2%, which is the first GDP\ncontraction since the fourth quarter of 1998 (-3.4%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Important accustomed drivers of growth were falling even before\nthe eruption of Taal Volcano in January and the COVID-19 crisis since February\nand especially since the lockdown starting mid-March. Growth in overseas\nremittances slowed from 5.3% in 2017 to 3.9% in 2019, and foreign investment\nflows from US$10.3 billion to US$7.6 billion over the same period. The\nmanufacturing sector slowed from 8% in 2017 to 3.2% in 2019, and agriculture\nfrom 4.2% to 1.2% over the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tourism had also been lackluster, said the group. Growth in gross\nvalue added of tourism industries remained virtually stagnant from 10.1% from\nin 2016 to 10.3% in 2017 and 10.6% in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In terms of expenditure, gross capital formation considerably slowed\nfrom 10.9% growth in 2017 to 2.5% in 2019 and exports from 17.4% to just 2.4\npercent. Household consumption spending remained steady at 6% in 2017 and 5.9%\nin 2019. Hence, overall economic growth has just been artificially driven by\ngovernment consumption spending, which increased from 6.5% in 2017 to 9.6% in\n2019 and by public infrastructure projects rather than an underlying dynamism\nfrom vibrant domestic agriculture and industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These basic economic weaknesses result in record joblessness and\nthe proliferation of informal and irregular work. Correcting the official\nmethodology which underreports joblessness, IBON estimated that the number of\nunemployed reached a record 4.7 million in 2019. The group also estimated that\n27.2 million or 64% of employment in the same year was really poor quality work\ncomprised of non-regular and agency-hired, government contractuals, and\ninformal earners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Widespread poverty is another indicator of a sluggish economy,\nsaid the group. According to PSA data, some 12.4 million or over half of 22\nmillion families nationwide were trying to survive on less than P132 per person\nper day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON pointed out that the last three years of slowing growth has\nbeen despite the Duterte administration\u2019s expanding Build, Build, Build\ninfrastructure program. Despite annual appropriations for infrastructure\nincreasing to 4.7% of GDP in 2019, economic growth still fell for a third\nconsecutive year. The group explained that infrastructure spending is a\nshort-term stimulus at best and that domestic agriculture and Filipino industry\nhave to be strengthened for growth to be higher and more sustained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agriculture sector has been weakening due to long-time\ngovernment neglect. It grew from -0.1% in 2016 to 4.2% in 2017, but steadily\ndeclined thereafter to 1.1% in 2018 and 1.2% in 2019. First quarter growth in\nagriculture slid to -0.4% in 2020 from 0.5% the previous year. Continued\nagricultural liberalization, such as of the rice subsector, will only weaken\nagriculture further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Growth in manufacturing, which has long been foreign-dominated and\nexport-oriented, has also been dwindling. The sector registered 6.8% growth in\n2016, which increased to 8.0% in 2017. But this dropped to 5.1% in 2018 and\n3.2% in 2019. First quarter growth in manufacturing went down to -3.6% in 2020\nfrom 5.2% in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON said that the government will be making this same mistake in\noverly relying on infrastructure spending as its response to the unprecedented\nCOVID-19 crisis. The group stressed that the government needs to implement\nbolder measures that prioritize the needs of Filipinos, especially the most\nvulnerable, and that genuinely develop the national economy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
These include: immediate emergency relief, and especially with unemployment soaring, extended income support to poorest households; expanding the public health system and providing universal social protection; and repurposing the economy for domestic demand-driven employment and growth by strengthening agriculture and building Filipino industry. The resources needed for these can be raised by imposing a wealth tax, higher personal income taxes for the richest families, and higher corporate income tax for the largest corporations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
IBON said that if the government insists on its old neoliberal policies and does not change course, the economy will be even weaker after the COVID-19 crisis. <\/p>", "protected": false }, "excerpt": { "rendered": "
NEWS<\/p>\n
The Philippine economy was already weak coming into the COVID-19 crisis. Growth will remain slow if the government does not acknowledge pre-existing weaknesses that the pandemic merely intensified. <\/p>", "protected": false }, "author": 3, "featured_media": 9646, "comment_status": "open", "ping_status": "open", "sticky": false, "template": "", "format": "standard", "meta": { "_acf_changed": false, "_exactmetrics_skip_tracking": false, "_exactmetrics_sitenote_active": false, "_exactmetrics_sitenote_note": "", "_exactmetrics_sitenote_category": 0, "footnotes": "" }, "categories": [ 2048, 14 ], "tags": [ 2199, 347, 258, 2265, 363, 1074, 116 ], "class_list": [ "post-9642", "post", "type-post", "status-publish", "format-standard", "has-post-thumbnail", "hentry", "category-banner", "category-news", "tag-covid-19", "tag-duterte-administration", "tag-economic-growth", "tag-economic-stimulus", "tag-gross-domestic-product", "tag-philippine-economic-growth", "tag-philippine-economy", "wpautop" ], "acf": [], "publishpress_future_action": { "enabled": false, "date": "2026-08-08 17:18:29", "action": "change-status", "newStatus": "draft", "terms": [], "taxonomy": "category", "extraData": [] }, "publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger": { "enabledWorkflows": [] }, "_links": { "self": [ { "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642", "targetHints": { "allow": [ "GET" ] } } ], "collection": [ { "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts" } ], "about": [ { "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post" } ], "author": [ { "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3" } ], "replies": [ { "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9642" } ], "version-history": [ { "count": 2, "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642\/revisions" } ], "predecessor-version": [ { "id": 9645, "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9642\/revisions\/9645" } ], "wp:featuredmedia": [ { "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9646" } ], "wp:attachment": [ { "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9642" } ], "wp:term": [ { "taxonomy": "category", "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9642" }, { "taxonomy": "post_tag", "embeddable": true, "href": "https:\/\/www.ibon.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9642" } ], "curies": [ { "name": "wp", "href": "https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}", "templated": true } ] } }