The overall revision and rebasing of the Philippine System of National Accounts from 2000 to 2018 resulted in higher gross domestic product growth figures over the past two decades.
Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that the 2019 GDP growth was revised from an initial estimate of 5.9 percent to 6.0 percent, as it adopted the 2018 as the new base year, instead of 2000.
This means the 2019 GDP growth fell within the government’s growth target of 6 percent to 7 percent for the year. GDP refers to the monetary value of all final goods and services produced within the economy in a given period.
The PSA also updated the annual GDP growth to 6.3 percent in 2018, 6.9 percent in 2017, 7.1 percent in 2016 and 6.3 percent in 2015.
Data showed that under the 2018 base year, the annual growth rates from 2000 to 2019 averaged 5.5 percent, higher than the 5.4-percent under the 2000 base year.
The PSA said it revised and rebased the national income accounts to capture changes and trends in the current economic structure, particularly the digitalization of the economy, the rise of global production networks and buying chains and agglomeration economies.
The PSA is expected to release the official first-quarter GDP figures next month which would partially reflect the Luzon-wide lockdown imposed starting March 16 amid the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.
The International Monetary Fund reduced its 2020 growth forecast for the Philippines to 0.6 percent from a previous estimate of 6.3 percent after the debilitating impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 on the economy.
IMF resident representative to the Philippines Yongzheng Yang, however, said economic growth would likely rebound strongly to 7.6 percent next year.
“Real GDP growth in 2020 is projected to slow down to 0.6 percent before it rebounds to 7.6 percent in 2021. The downward revision of the 2020 growth forecast is mostly attributable to supply disruptions related to COVID-19 and weaker demand in the Philippines’ major trading partners,” Yang said following the release of the World Economic Outlook in April 2020.
