PH grew 6% in Q2, not 5.9% – NSCB

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) has revised the country’s second-quarter growth upward to 6%.

The gross domestic product (GDP) growth was revised from the 5.9% announced last August. This brought the country’s first semester growth to 6.2%.

The new data followed revisions in the growth of all 3 production sectors – agriculture, fishery and forestry (AFF); industry, which represents manufacturing, construction, and others; and services, which include business process outsourcing (BPO) growth.

NSCB said AFF growth was revised downward to 0.6% from the initial estimate of 0.7%; industry revised upward to 5.5% from 4.6%; and services, revised downward to 7.4% from the initial 7.6%.

Industry growth

Growth in the industry sector was largely accounted for by the construction sector, which grew 14%, instead of the originally reported 10%.

Figures for mining and quarrying, as well as manufacturing were also revised. The contraction in mining and quarrying was now 6.3% rather than the initial 7.3%, while manufacturing grew 4.3% in the second quarter, up from the initial recorded growth of 4%.

In terms of expenditures, GDP growth was driven by the upward revision in the growth of capital formation to 7.3%, from the initial 2.3%. This was largely due to the over 1,000% growth of 3 sectors – sugarmill machineries, air transport and railway transport.

The increase in sugarmill machineries, NSCB Director Raymund Talento said, was brought about by the increase in imports for the rehabilitation of the sugar industry.

In terms of air transport equipment, Talento said growth came from Philippine Airlines’ (PAL) importation of Boeing airplanes. Talento said the planes arrived late June and the NSCB was only able to include them in its GDP computation in July.

Imports in June shot up by 13%, largely due to the arrival of the PAL planes. It was the highest import growth recorded this year.

The NSCB data also showed that government consumption grew by a revised 6.8%, instead of 5.9%. Household consumption, on the other hand, rose by a revised 5.9%, instead of the initial 5.7% figure.

The actual GDP numbers for the third quarter will be released on Wednesday, November 28. – Rappler.com