Construction projects shrank 20 percent in Q1, PSA data show

CONSTRUCTION projects saw a contraction of over 20 percent in the first quarter, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

PSA said based on data released on Tuesday, the value of construction projects contracted 20.1 percent while the total number of projects shrank 22.4 percent in the first three months of the year.

Construction projects amounted to P86.07 billion in the first quarter of 2020 from P107.67 billion in the same period of 2019. The amount covered 30,838 projects in 2020 and 39,762 project in 2019.

“In the previous quarter, the number of constructions decreased at an annual rate of 7.7 percent and in first quarter of 2019, it increased at 10.4 percent,” PSA said.

Data showed that residential construction reported the highest number of construction projects during the quarter, which totaled 20,515 or 66.5 percent of the total number of constructions.

However, PSA said construction of houses contracted 25.5 percent than its annual rate in the previous quarter of 13.3 percent. A total of 89.7 percent of the residential constructions were single-type houses.

These projects, which amounted to P36.5 billion, accounted for 42.4 percent of the total value. This shows a contraction of 19.2 percent from the P45.2 billion construction value posted in the same quarter of 2019.

Apart from residential construction projects, around 18.7 percent the projects were non-residential during the quarter.

Similar to residential construction projects, there was also a double-digit decline in non-residential projects at 10.8 percent. Most of the projects, or 66 were commercial buildings.

The construction value of nonresidential buildings amounted to P44.3 billion or 51.5 percent of the total value. This reflects an 18.5 percent decrease from the P54.3 billion value of construction in the same quarter of the previous year.

PSA data also showed that addition and alteration and repair of existing structures had shares of 3.8 percent and 11 percent, respectively, to total constructions.

Both types of constructions also declined at 26.4 percent for addition and 19 percent for alteration and repair, which were contrary to their respective annual rates in the same quarter of the previous year.

The value of construction for addition and alteration and repair to existing structures, accounted for P1.7 billion, or 1.9 percent, and P3.6 billion, or 4.2 percent, respectively, of the total.

Both types of constructions had reduction in their respective value with annual rate of 10.8 percent for addition and 42.7 percent for alteration and repair to existing structure.