Caraga’s economic growth decelerated in 2015 says PSA
By Nora C. Lanuza Molde
BUTUAN CITY, Sept. 7 – The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Caraga revealed during the Regional Development Council – Social Development Committee meeting conducted on Tuesday that the region’s economic growth decelerated from 9.4 percent in 2014 to 4.2 percent in 2015.
The region’s growth declined as agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing (AHFF) declined and industry and services slowed down during that period.
It was also noted that the services sector has continue to account for the largest share in the region’s total economic output with 14.7 percent followed by 37.2 percent of the industry sector while the AHFF also contributed 17.1 percent.
During the year, the overall performance of the services sector slowed down from 9.2 percent in 2014 to 5.3 percent in 2015 this is due to the decelerated growth of four sub-industries.
The transportation, storage and communication (TSC) also recorded the biggest deceleration from 16.4 percent in 2014 to 4.2 percent in 2015.
On the financial intermediation (FI), it slowed down from 5.7 percent to 5.6 percent and the public administration and defense (PAD) decelerated from 4.4 percent to 1.3 percent.
Meanwhile, real estate, renting and business activities (RERBA) recorded an accelerated growth from 5.4 percent in 2014 to 7.4 percent in 2015 and other services (OS) expanded from 4.6 percent to 7.0 percent.
Also, the Industry sector has decelerated to 9.9 percent in 2015 from 14.8 percent in 2014. It says that the slowdown was attributed to the slowdown in mining and quarrying (MAQ) and manufacturing. MAQ, which accounted for the largest share in the industry decelerated from 14.7 percent to 5.0 percent in 2015.
Likewise, the manufacturing also slowed down from 12.7 percent to 2.6 percent in 2015.
However, electricity, gas and water supply (EGWS) cushioned the decelerated growths of the first two sub-industries as it rebounded from negative 5.8 percent in 2014 to 24.1 percent in 2015.
Construction further improved its performance by accelerating from 20.6 percent to 22.7 percent in 2015.
The AHFF has suffered a reversal from 1.3 percent in 2014 to negative 8.5 percent in 2015 due to the contraction of agriculture and forestry by 9.6 percent in 2015 from a positive 1.4 percent in 2014. The fishing also contracted from 0.8 percent in 2014 to negative 1.5 percent in 2015.
PSA further bared that the industry and services sector has contributed 3.5 percentage points and 2.4 percentage points to the region’s total growth for the year, respectively. (PSA/NCLM/PIA-Caraga)
