THE global economic crisis, security problems and flooding pulled down the economic performance of Central Mindanao region last year, officials said.

In a press conference in General Santos City Wednesday, Herlita G. Caraan, regional chief of the National Statistical Coordination Board, said the region's economy dipped to 4.6 percent last year from 6.7 percent in 2007.

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"The year 2008 was bad since the three major sectors experienced a downturn compared to the year ago level," she told reporters.

Teresita Socorro C. Ramos, acting regional director of the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda), said the decline in the economic performance last year was even below the regional target of 5.1 percent growth.

"It's difficult to conclude what really pulled down the region's economic performance [among the factors like global economic crunch, security problems and flooding]. But I believe there's a need to improve the peace and order problem to attract more investments in the area," Ramos said.

She noted though that the global crunch was felt in the region only in the third quarter of 2008, and the first two quarters was characterized by conflict between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and floods.

Ramos urged the government and the Moro rebels to resume amity talks and forge a final peace agreement to accelerate the growth of the region.

In a statement released to the local media, the regional statistics office said the agriculture, fishery and forestry (AFF) sector slowed down to 6.7 percent from 7.8 percent in 2007.

The AFF sector accounts for the bulk of the region’s total economic output at 42.9%.

It said the favorable performances turned in by the fishery and livestock were not able to cushion the lower growths posted by corn, coconut, banana, pineapple, rubber and other crops as well as poultry.

The industry sector, which accounted for about 31$ of the region's total economic output, also posted a sluggish performance, diving to 3.5 percent last year from 6.9 percent previously, as all of its subsectors experienced slowdown.

Manufacturing, which accounted for the biggest share of the total industry sector output, dropped from 5.4 percent to 3.4 percent; mining and quarrying from 9.1 percent to 3.9 percent, and construction from 18.1 percent to 5.8 percent.

Electricity and water contracted to negative 1.5 percent in 2008 from 4.1 percent growth the previous year due to reduced power generation of the Mt. Apo geothermal plants.

Services, which comprised 26.1 percent of the region’s economy, slipped down to 2.7 percent in 2008 from 4.7 percent in 2007.

In a presentation, Caraan said that despite Central Mindanao's plunging economic performance last year, it still ranked third among the country's fastest growing regions, behind Northern Mindanao and the National Capital Region.

In 2007, Central Mindanao ranked 10th among the 17 regions in the country, she said. (BSS)