PHILLIPINES ECONOMY

Economic Crisis 2020

 The Philippines ended the pandemic year of 2020 with its worst economic performance since the country began releasing growth data just after World War II in 1947, in what officials say is a consequence of policies to save lives during the COVID-19 crisis.

The country's gross domestic product shrank 9.5% last year -- the first annual contraction since 1998 -- a year after the Asian financial crisis erupted, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Thursday.

The data, which represents the low-end of the country's minus 8.5% to minus 9.5% target range, eclipses the prior record contraction of 7.0% in 1984 when the Southeast Asian nation plunged into economic and political crises during the final years of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship.

Fourth-quarter GDP shrank 8.3% year-on-year, moderating from a contraction of 11.4% in the third quarter. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the economy grew 5.6% in the fourth quarter from the third.

Quarterly economic decline bottomed at a record 16.9% fall in GDP in the second quarter, a period that covered the most intense period of coronavirus lockdown.

The Philippines has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia. As of Wednesday, the country had 518,407 cases, with more than 1,000 daily new cases for the past three weeks and 10,481 deaths.

Duterte's economic team expects the economy to grow 6.5% to 7.5% this year due to further reopening of the economy and as coronavirus vaccinations begin.

"The Duterte administration's efforts to increasingly open the economy while taking resolute steps to fast-track the vaccination program and keep the COVID-19 caseload to the lowest level possible, would boost business and consumer confidence that are crucial to a robust economic recovery."