The Philippines’s gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 9.5 percent in 2020 due to severe impact caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

A jeepney is seen on a road in Manila, the Philippines, in August 2020 (Photo: Xinhua)

This is the sharpest since the PSA started collecting data on annual growth rates in 1947.

In 2019, the Philippine economy grew by 6 percent.

PSA’s data shows that in the last quarter of 2020, the Southeast Asian country’s GDP shrank by 8.3 percent year-on-year after a fall of 11.4 percent in the third quarter.

According to Philippine Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua, the purchasing power in the country remained weak and this prevents private consumption from making a stronger comeback.

However, he is still optimistic about the economic outlook of the country in 2021, which is forecast to strongly recover before the end of the year when the government launches a large-scale COVID-19 vaccination programme.

The Philippines’s GDP is predicted to expand between 6.5 to 7.5 percent in 2021.

Source: VNA