Bicol, NCR, Davao fastest-growing regions

THE Bicol, Metro Manila and Davao regions were considered the fastest growing nationwide last year, according to the Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

The PSA said the Bicol region posted the fastest growth at 7.4 percent in 2019, followed by the National Capital Region (NCR) at 7.2 percent and Davao Region at 7 percent.

Other regions that posted high GRDP growth were Ilocos Region at 6.9 percent, Cagayan Valley at 6.7 percent and Western Visayas at 6.4 percent.

Meanwhile, real per capita GDP in 2019 reached 4.5 percent. Bicol Region topped the regional economies with 6.2 percent per capita growth followed by Ilocos Region at 5.9 percent, NCR at 5.8 percent, and Cagayan Valley at 5.5 percent.

“In terms of per capita index relative to the national levels, NCR posted the highest per capita index at 253.2 in 2019. All other regions posted lower indices than the national average,” PSA, however, said.

In terms of production, services grew the fastest at 7.5 percent followed by industry at 4.7 percent and agriculture, 1.2 percent in 2019.

Regions that registered the fastest growth in services were Caraga Region at 11 percent, followed by Bicol Region at 10 percent and Eastern Visayas and Cagayan Valley, both at 9.1 percent.

In terms of share, PSA data showed NCR registered the biggest share of 42.7 percent in services in 2019 followed by Calabarzon at 10.6 percent.

Meanwhile, the regions with the highest growth in industry were recorded in BARMM at 10.2 percent, followed by Davao Region and NCR at 9.6 percent and 7.5 percent, respectively.

In terms of the share of each region to the whole industry, Calabarzon constituted the largest share at 24.4 percent, trailed by NCR, 20.9 percent, and Central Luzon, 15.9 percent.

For agriculture, the regions with the fastest growth in the sector were Cagayan Valley at 7.2 percent, followed by Mimaropa and Bicol Region both at 4.7 percent, and Cordillera Administrative Region at 4.2 percent.

In terms of the share of regional economies in agriculture, Central Luzon topped the share at 15 percent followed by Northern Mindanao at 9.9 percent, and Calabarzon at 8.7 percent.

The PSA data also showed that in terms of expenditure, the Zamboanga Peninsula posted the highest growth in household spending at 7.3 percent in 2019.

This was followed by Cagayan Valley, NCR and BARMM at 7 percent, 6.5 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.

Government spending, meanwhile, was the highest in Northern Mindanao at 19.2 percent followed by Bicol Region with 13.4 percent, Caraga Region with 11.4 percent, and NCR with 10.3 percent. The rest of the regions had growth lower than the national growth of 9.6 percent.