CORDILLERA’S economy grew by 2.1 percent in 2016 with agriculture and forestry posting significant increase, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
PSA-Cordillera director Villafe Alibuyog said the region's gross domestic product (GDP) in 2016 reached P138,652,941, which is higher compared to the P133,848,201 GDP in 2015.
"There is an increase of agriculture and forestry by 4.7 percent compared to 4.1 percent in 2015 as well as fishing with 8.8 percent compared to three percent in 2015,” Alibuyog said.
Industry accounted for half of the region's total output at 49.4 percent, followed by services at 41.7 percent and agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing at 8.8 percent.
Industry posted a decrease of 0.2 percent in 2016 from a positive 3.5 percent in 2015 brought about by the negative growths of construction, mining and quarrying which decreased by 25.4 and 3.5 percent, respectively.
PSA added that manufacturing, the industry's biggest contributor, managed to grow but on a slower pace from 4.4 percent in 2015 to three percent in 2016. Electricity, gas and water supply (EGWS) rebounded from negative growth of 8.6 in 2015 to positive 13.4 percent in 2016.
Services decelerated from 6.8 percent in 2015 to 6.5 percent in 2016 while real estate, renting and business activities slowed down from 6.6 percent in 2015 to 3.1 percent in 2016.
The other sub-industries that decreased were transportation, storage and communication (from 7.0 percent to 5.3 percent) and trade (from 7.2 percent to 7.1 percent).
Public administration and defense accelerated the fastest (from 1.3 percent to 5.3 percent), followed by financial intermediation (from 6.0 percent to 8.7 percent), and other services (from 9.0 percent to 9.6 percent).
"Services contributed most to the region's overall growth rate at 2.6 percentage points. AHFF pulled down CAR's growth by .4 percent and industry by. 0.1 percent point," added Alibuyog.
Cordillera’s economy ranked 14th in the country, with 1.7 percent share to the total national GDP, which was slightly lower with its 1.8 percent share in 2015.
The Cordillera belongs to the 10 regions below the national growth rate.