ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Thursday announced that Zamboanga Peninsula’s economy posted a slower growth of 2.3 percent in 2017 from 4.6 percent in 2016.
PSA Regional Director Mewchun Pamaran reported that the slow growth was due to the contraction of Agriculture and Industry sectors in the region.Pamaran said that Services accounted for the largest share of the region’s economy.
Its share increased from 43.1 in 2016 to 44.8 percent in 2017.Pamaran said the shares of Industry and Agriculture Hunting, Forestry and Fishing) were 37.8 percent and 17.4 percent, respectively.
Pamaran said that Services contributed the most to the region’s total economic growth with 2.7 percentage points.
Pamaran said that Industry and Agriculture pulled down the region’s total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 0.3 percentage point and 0.1 percentage point, respectively.
She said Services accelerated to 6.3 percent in 2017 from 6.1 percent in 2016. This was due to the improved performance of the other services, with 10.4 percent growth.
Other services included Education, Health and Social Work, Hotels and Restaurants, Sewage and Refuse Disposal Sanitation and Similar Activities, Recreational, Cultural and Sporting Activities, and Other Service Activities.
All other sub-industries under Services also contributed positively to the growth of the Services industry in the region: Public Administration and Defense with 7.8 percent growth; Financial Intermediation with 7.6 percent growth; Transportation, Storage and Communication with 4.9 percent growth; Trade and Repair of Motor Vehicles, Personal and Household Goods with 4.0 percent growth; and Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities with 1.8 percent growth.
Industry, on the other hand, contracted by 0.8 percent in 2017 as compared with the 7.9 percent growth recorded in 2016, according to Pamaran.
The contraction was due to the decline in construction by 9.4 percent in 2017.
Meanwhile, the following sub-industries contributed positively to the growth of Industry in the region: Mining and Quarrying with accelerated growth of 11.6 percent from 4.3 percent in 2016; Manufacturing with 3.2 percent growth from 1.6 percent last year; and Electricity, Gas and Water Supply with 0.4 percent, although a deceleration from previous year’s 2.1 percent.
Pamaran noted that Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing continued to decline in 2017 with 0.4 percent drop in 2017, although at a slower rate than the 5.0 percent drop in 2016.
She said pulling down the growth of Agriculture, Hunting, Forestry and Fishing was Fishing, which accounted for 5.0 percent of the region’s economy.
She said it further declined by 9.4 percent in 2017 from a 7.7 percent drop in 2016.
Agriculture and Forestry, on the other hand, rebounded from a decline of 3.7 percent in 2016 to 3.8 percent growth in 2017. (Teofilo Garcia, Jr/PNA)
