The economy of the National Capital Region, or Metro Manila, grew 7.5 percent year-on-year in 2016, faster than the 6.7-percent expansion recorded in 2015, driven by the services sector, the Philippine Statistics Authority said in a news briefing Thursday.
PSA NCR regional director Rosalinda Bautista said Metro Manila’s growth was the seventh fastest in 2016, behind the 12.4-percent growth of Eastern Visayas and 9.5-percent expansion of Central Luzon.
NCR’s gross regional domestic product was valued at P3 trillion in 2016, up from P2.8 trillion in 2015.
Bautista said the services sector in NCR expanded 8 percent last year, up from the previous year’s 6.6 percent. She said this made the services sector the biggest contributor to the NCR economy at 81.4 percent.
NCR’s contribution to the national GDP reached 36.6 percent in 2016, slightly higher than 36.5 percent in 2015. The country’s GDP last year grew 6.9 percent, higher than 5.9 percent a year ago.
Bautista said the expansion in the services sector was brought about by the growth in real estate, renting and business activities; public administration and defense; compulsory social security; trade and repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles; personal and household goods and financial intermediation.
Real estate, renting and business activities grew 11.2 percent while trade and financial intermediation accelerated 7.8 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively. Transportation, storage and communication went up 5.9 percent.
The industry sector grew 5.5 percent in 2016, slower than 6.9 percent in 2015. “The deceleration was attributed to the slowdown in construction and manufacturing. Manufacturing posted a 6.5-percent growth, lower than the previous year’s 7 percent,” Bautista said.
Construction suffered a contraction of 2-percent, compared to 7.2-percent growth in 2015.
Meanwhile, the agriculture and fishery sector posted a 1.4-percent decline in 2016, a turnaround from the 4.1 percent a year ago.
“This was brought about by the further decline of fishing from negative 2 percent in 2015 to negative 3.8 percent in 2016. Agriculture and forestry also declined with negative 1.3 percent in 2016, lower than the reported growth of 4.1 percent in 2015,” Bautista said.
Bautista said in 2017, she was optimistic the NCR economy could grow faster despite the lingering traffic situation in the metropolis and increasing consumer prices.
“We remain positive we could grow higher this year, although we can’t estimate the pace of expansion,” Bautista said.
The services sector accounted for 81.1 percent of NCR economy. The output was driven by trade and repair; real estate, renting and business activities; and transportation, storage and communication subsectors.