About the GRDP

The Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) is the value of the final goods and services produced within the region for a particular year. It is the sum of the value added across all sectors in the economy.

There are three major sectors that contribute to the economy, namely, (a) agriculture, fishery and forestry, (b) industry, and (c) service. Each of these sectors are further broken down into sub-sectors (see table below). As far as Region VIII is concerned, these sectors contribute almost equally to the regional economy.

The GRDP is usually presented in nominal and real terms. Nominal GRDP measures the value of the outputs of the economy at current prices. Real GRDP referred to as GRDP at constant prices, measures the value of an economy's output using the prices of a fixed base year. The real GRDP is usuful in capturing real output growth since inflationary effects have been removed. It is therefoer, the most widely used measure of real income.

The GRDP is computed annually by the National Statistical Coordination Board. It released in the second week of July of the following year.

Table 2.Eastern Visayas GRDP Growth Rates
by Industrial Origin
CY 2001 to 2005, at constant prices

ANALYSIS (GRDP 2005):

The economy of Eastern Visayas grew at a slower pace of 4.0 percent in 2005, from 5.2 percent the previous year. This is attributed to the decelerated performance of the industry and services sectors. The region is among eleven other regions in the country which showed declining growth rates in 2005. Its growth rate is slightly lower than the decelerated national growth of 5.0 percent.

The industry sector, which comprised 30.8 percent of the region’s economy, posted a big deceleration from a 7.3 percent growth in 2004, down to 2.8 percent in 2005. Manufacturing, which accounted for 20.4 percent of the regional economy, contributed to this decline as it plunged from 9.6 percent in 2004 to 2.2 percent in 2005 due to the big drop in the production of chemicals. Construction also decelerated from 5.5 percent in 2004 to 3.3 percent in 2005.

The services sector, the biggest contributor to the region’s economy at 35.9 percent, exhibited a slower growth of 4.3 percent in 2005, from 4.8 percent in 2004. This was due to the decelerated growths of all its sub-sectors except finance and government services. Finance expanded by 8.1 percent in 2005, from 7.5 percent a year ago. Among the services sub-sectors, transport, communication and storage (TCS) registered the highest growth of 8.5 percent in 2005.

Meanwhile, the agriculture, fishery and forestry (AFF) sector, which had a 33.2 percent share to the regional economy, recorded an accelerated growth of 4.9 percent in 2005, from 3.6 percent the previous year. The better performance of the sector was brought about by the increases in the production of fish, palay, coconut and root crops.

The real per capita GRDP of the region slightly increased by 1.9 percent, from Ps 6,555 in 2004 to Ps 6,678 in 2005. This is, however, less than half of the national average of Ps 14,186. Eastern Visayas is ranked third from the lowest in terms of per capita GRDP, next to Muslim Mindanao and Bicol Region.

Source: National Statistical Coordination Board

ANALYSIS (GRDP 2004):

Eastern Visayas' economy posted a robust growth of 6.9 percent in 2004, surpassing its 5.4 percent growth the previous year, making it one of the fastest growing domestic economies among the seventeen (17) regions in the country, along with Cagayan Valley, Western Visayas, National Capital Region, Central Visayas, and Davao Region in the top 6. The GRDP growth was pushed by the strong performance of the industry sector. The region's share to the country's domestic economy remained minimal at 2.3 percent in 2004.

Industries, which comprised 31.3 percentof the GRDP, accelerated from 2.8 percentin 2003 to 8.2 percent in 2004 due to theexpansion in manufacturing sector andrecovery in construction industry, whichcomprised 20.6 percent and 6.9 percent ofthe regional economy, respectively.Construction recovered tremendously froma 7.6 percent slump in 2003 to a 9.7percent growth in 2004 due to theimplementation of big local governmentinfrastructure projects. Meanwhile, thehigh price of copper products in the worldmarket boosted manufacturing, posting a9.6 percent increase in 2004 from 6.9percent in 2003.

Services, which represented 35.9 percent of the regional economy, grew by 5.7 percent in 2004, from 4.8 percent in 2003. Except for occupied dwellings and real estate (ODRE) and private services, all the other subsectors exhibited accelerated growths in 2004. The expansion of services of telecommunication companies to the municipalities brought about the remarkable growth in the transportation, communication and storage (TCS) sector from 7.8 percent in 2003 to 13.1 percent in 2004.

Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry (AFF), which accounted for 32.8 percent of the region's total output, grew but at a slower pace from 8.6 percent in 2003 to only 7.0 percent in 2004. The expansion of mariculture zones, use of hybrid seeds and subsidized schemes on seed and fertilizer distribution, adequate rainfall and absence of natural calamities contributed to the growth of the AFF sector.

Source: National Statistical Coordination Board