CV growth speeds up by 8.8 percent in 2016

CEBU, Philippines - The Central Visayas economy accelerated by 8.8 percent in 2016, its highest growth in four years making it the country's fourth fastest growing regional economy.

The 2016 gross regional domestic product (GRDP) growth was higher than the 4.9 percent in 2015 and surpassed the 8.6 percent target set in the 2011-2016 Regional Development Plan.

"This growth continued to place the Central Visayas economy as among the top performing regions in the country, this time placing is as fourth fastest after Region 8, Region 3 and Region 11," National Economic and Development Authority Regional Director Efren Carreon said in a news conference yesterday on the region's 2016 economic performance.

"With the 8.8 percent growth rate, the region's seven-year moving average GRDP growth rate stands at 8.2 percent, still the highest ever recorded," he said.

The region's growth average is higher than that of the national which is 6.3 percent.

Central Visayas accounted for about 6.4 percent of the national economic output last year.

In real terms, the Central Visayas economy was valued at P525 billion at constant prices, still the country's fourth largest economy in the country after National Capital Region, CALABARZON and Central Luzon.

Economic sectors

The 14.6 percent growth in the industry sector propelled the region's growth last year.

"The biggest contributor to this growth was the construction subsector which grew by 40 percent in 2016," Carreon said.

He added: "Construction activities in Central Visayas will continue to remain upbeat in the next plan period as the private sector continued to invest in real estate development projects, coupled with high government spending on infrastructure."

The manufacturing sector had also grown through at a slower rate at 5.9 percent last year from 5.3 percent in 2015.

"This indicates that domestic demand had propelled this growth, given the softer demand from the world market for export manufactures coming from the region," the NEDA official said.

However, the agriculture sector contracted 0.6 percent last year, mainly due natural calamities and climate change which have been unfavorable to farm productivity, he said.

"Our agriculture sector remains to be a challenge. Though it constitutes only 5.4 percent of the regional economy, we still consider it important," he added.

Moreover, the services sector posted a 5.9 percent growth in 2016, slower than the 8.7 percent growth in 2015. This deceleration was due to the slow growth in transportation and communication sector.

In terms of share, the services sector remained to account for the largest share of the region's 2016 economic output with 55.5 percent, although lower than the 57 percent posted in 2015.

Industry followed at 39.1 percent leaving behind the agriculture industry with only 5.4 percent share.

"The 2016 growth rate of 8.8 percent is great news for the economy of Cebu and Central Visayas especially as we only grew by 4.9 percent in 2015. This wonderful news cannot come at a better time as more investments and infrastructure projects in Cebu and Central Visayas are starting to materialize. This will reinforce the confidence of the business community and the investors in the region and further spur economic growth," Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Melanie Ng told The FREEMAN yesterday.

She believes growth last year was continued to be buoyed by the region's key economic drivers such as the sustained increase in tourist arrivals with the increase in number of direct flights to Cebu, the continued development of the ICT sector, and the continued rise of BPO workers amid the thriving BPO sector in Cebu.

Under the 2017-2022 Regional Development Plan approved by the Regional Development Council last February, the goal is to build on this impressive growth by between 7.5-8 percent on the average by end of 2022.

"With this performance, we are optimistic that we can hit this target," Carreon said.

Looking forward, he said the present administration's major infrastructure buildup is expected to spur public sector investments in the region.

Among the big-ticket projects on the pipeline are the New Cebu International Container Port and toll bridge linking Cebu City and Cordova town, Cebu's third bridge.

He said in the planning stage are the Metro Cebu Expressway and the fourth bridge still linking Cebu mainland and Mactan Island. (FREEMAN)