By John Noel E. Herrera
The province of Guimaras recorded the fastest growth among the eight economies in Western Visayas, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
PSA-Guimaras Chief Statistical Specialist Nelida B. Losare said Guimaras province recorded a 7.7 percent growth, which was also faster than the 5.9 percent growth in the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) of Western Visayas.
“The 7.7 percent growth of the province in 2021 was a rebound from a –5.1 percent decline in 2020. Moreover, in 2021, the Gross Provincial Domestic Product (GPDP) of the province reached P14.8 billion from the 2020 level of P13.7 billion,” Losare added during the Dissemination Forum on Provincial Product Accounts of Guimaras on Wednesday, Dec 14, 2022.
PSA defined Provincial Product Account (PPA) as a mechanism to compile the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) using a production approach and other economic accounts at the subregional level.
The service industry contributed the largest share in the economic growth of the province with 50.6 percent, followed by agriculture, forestry, and fishing with 34.1 percent and construction, mining, and manufacturing with 15.3 percent.
The top fastest-growing industries in the province also include construction services at 33 percent, followed by transportation and storage at 18.2, and human health and social work activities at 19.9.
PSA-Guimaras added that by measuring the economic performance of the province, the provincial government can have economic data for “evidence-based decision-making towards welfare improvements, like job creation, income generation, and investments.”
“This will be instrumental to any development process which will provide us measured responses, as well as good outcomes whatever we plan out,” Guimaras Governor JC Rahman A. Nava said.
Guimaras was also one of the 16 provinces that already surpassed the 2019 GPDP level among the 46 pilot provinces subjected to PPA compilation.
Meanwhile, Nava also welcomed how Guimaras started to bounce back from the crippling effects of the pandemic.
“In our results, I always believe that Guimaras is good and recovering, the numbers shown to us are promising, especially that 7.7 percent. It is unfortunate that it was conducted at the time of the pandemic, and nadugangan sang Ukraine war, so there are factors that also affected the statistics, yet, we can see how resilient we are with these factors, so I think we can still do better,” he said.
Nava, however, acknowledged that there are still a lot of things that should be done, especially since the entire country is still struggling with inflation.
“The supply and demand thing is also a problem right now as we are hit by inflation. It will be a challenge for now and we hope in years to come, we will be able to manage the gaps,” Nava said.
