The Philippines entered technical recession amid the coronavirus pandemic as the gross domestic product sank 16.5 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, following a 0.7-percent decline in the first quarter, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show.
"On a seasonally-adjusted basis, GDP posted quarter-on-quarter decline of 15.2 percent," the PSA said.
The latest GDP figure brought the average economic performance in the first half to -8.6 percent, below the govenrment’s 2020 projection of -2 percent to -3.4 percent.
The PSA said the second-quarter contraction was the lowest since it began tracking quarterly growth based on the 1981 series.
The gross national income (formerly known as GNP) also contracted by 17 percent, as the net primary income from the rest of the world dropped 22 percent in the second quarter.
Agriculture grew 1.6 percent in the second quarter, but the industry sector slumped the most at 22.9 percent and the services sector sank 15.8 percent.
The PSA said the main contributors to the GDP decline were manufacturing, -21.3 percent; construction, -33.5 percent; and transportation and storage, -59.2 percent.
On the expenditure side, major items that declined were household final consumption expenditure, -15.5 percent; gross capital formation, -53.5 percent; exports, -37 percent; and imports, -40 percent.
The government final consumption expenditure, however, grew 22.1 percent year-on-year in the second quarter.