ILOILO – Western Visayas is the fourth largest economy in the country outside the National Capital Region (NCR). It posted an economic growth of 6.4 percent in 2019, four points higher than the national average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 6.0 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Region 6.
In yesterday’s virtual conference, Director Marlene Aviar reported on the economic performance of Western Visayas. She said the region’s growth in 2019 was faster than the 4.8 percent posted in 2018.
The total value of the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP), P915.3 billion, was P55.2 billion more than in 2018.
“Western Visayas’ economy expanded as shown in the consistent growth in the past three years,” Alviar said.
The economic performance of the region is measured from the perspective of producers of goods and services through the GRDP, or from the perspective of the expenditures of residents using another estimation tool, the Gross Regional Domestic Expenditure (GRDE).
The services sector had the largest contribution to the region’s economy at 62.1 percent, and was also the fastest to grow at 8.2 percent among the major industries.
By sub-industries, the top five largest contributors comprising about 60 percent of the region’s economy were trade, agriculture and fishing, manufacturing, transportation and storage, and financial and insurance activities.
Accommodation and food service activities, on the other hand, grew fastest with 31.4 percent among the sub-industries under services.
As to expenditures in terms of GRDE, household final consumption expenditure shared the biggest with 90.0 percent.
Gross capital formation grew fastest among the expenditure items at 9.8 percent.
National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) regional director Ro-an Bacal thanked PSA for generating the data that emphasized the need for up-to-dated, reliable and accurate information important in policy-making, planning and formulating new programs and projects.
In the Visayas, Bacal noted that Region 6 is the fastest growing regional economy compared to Central Visayas, which grew at 5.9 percent and Eastern Visayas at 5.3 percent.
The region’s per capita GRDP of P116,803 is 5.4 percent higher compared to P110,783 in 2018.
The GRDP per capita, Bacal explained, is the monetary worth of goods and services divided by the region’s population./PN
