Manila, Aug. 10, (dpa/GNA) – The Philippine economy grew 11.8 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2021, ending a 15-month recession due to prolonged coronavirus lockdowns, the government said Tuesday.
Gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the April-June period rebounded from a low base of negative 17 per cent in the same quarter in 2020, the height of the Covid-19 lockdowns in the Philippines.
It was up from a revised contraction rate of 3.9 per cent in the first quarter of 2021 and the highest in 33 years, since 1988 when the economy grew 12 per cent in the fourth quarter, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Among the major economic sectors, industry grew by 20.8 per cent and services by 9.6 per cent, while agriculture declined by 0.1 per cent in the second quarter from the same period last year, it added.
“The robust performance is driven by more than just base effects,” said Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua. “It is the result of a better balance between addressing Covid-19 and the need to restore jobs and incomes of the people.”
While the government re-imposed a strict lockdown in the capital region of Metro Manila and high-risk areas at the start of the second quarter, Chua noted that authorities have allowed more economic activity, such as construction, to continue.
Metro Manila was again placed under strict lockdown for two weeks starting August 6 to contain the spread of the more contagious Delta variant, which has pushed daily Covid-19 cases to four-month highs.
GNA