TACLOBAN CITY — Eastern Visayas is maintaining its economic growth level on the 6-percent mark, the average in the past three years.
Director Wilma Perante, Philippine Statistics Authority chief for the region, said this was largely driven by the positive performance of services and industry sectors.
In 2023, the performance was lower than 6.7 percent growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GRDP) in 2033. It was 6 percent in 2021 and 5.3 percent before 2020.
In a press briefing held last week at the Summit Hotel, Perante reported:
“The total value of goods and services in the region, as measured by the GRDP, increased to P523.56 billion in 2023 from P492.18 billion in 2022, resulting in P31.38 billion in economic gains,” Perante said.
The PSA said the services sector, which accounts for 47.7 percent of the regional economy, rose by 7.5 percent last year.
The services sector, which accounts for 47.7 percent of the regional economy, rose by 7.5 percent last year while the industry sector, which contributes 40.4 percent to the regional kitty, posted 5.8 percent growth in 2023, lower than the 7.2 percent recorded for 2022.
Director Jam Colas of the National Economic Development Authority in Eastern Visayas, said the regions's 6.4 percent marks the sixth fastest growing regional economy nationwide.
“The region outpaced the national average growth of 5.5 percent. Likewise, this is the first time on record that Eastern Visayas has achieved three consecutive years of growth at 6 percent and above,” Colas told reporters.
On the other hand, the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector rebounded to 3.8 percent growth from 6.2 percent decline in 2022. This sector's share in the GDRP is only 11.9 percent
Agriculture Regional Executive Director Andrew Orias said that while there is a significant increase, "we are not satisfied since there are more things to be done for the sector."
This is not enough as "we must catch up since we are an agriculture region", Orias added.
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