NSCB revises upwards 2010 economic growth

THE Philippine economy grew by a faster 7.6 percent in 2010, according to the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB).

The revision of the earlier 7.3 percent growth figure stems from the re-basing of the country’s national income accounts to 2000 from the existing base-year of 1985.

Using 2000 as base year, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) amounted to P9.003 trillion last year, a big jump from the 1985 base-year figure of P1.54 trillion.

The NSCB said the revision reflects the “accurate” value of Philippine GDP.

“We actually grew faster than the 7.3 percent in 2010. So, that’s good news for poverty statistics in 2012,” said Romulo Virola, NSCB secretary-general.

He said using 1985 prices as the base is “no longer appropriate, because you compute a value of 2010 using prices and weight of 1985.”

The NSCB also revised upward GDP and growth rates from 1998 to 2009.

“The average change of GDP level estimate from 1998 to 2010 is about 5.9 percent while for the GNI estimate its 19.7 percent,” the agency said.

GNI or gross national income is the new name for gross national product (GNP).

On the production side, the NSCB included mango, pineapple, coffee, casava and rubber in the agriculture, fishing and forestry (AFF).

Prior to the revision, AFF included only palay, corn, coconut, coconut including copra, sugarcane, banana, other crops, livestock, poultry, fishery and forestry.

For merchandise exports, the NSCB included electronic data processing, office equipment, consumer electronics, telecommunications, communications/radar, transmission apparatus other communication radar, control instrumentation, medical/industrial instrumentation and electrical apparatus.

The NSCB also included mango (fresh and dried) in exports.

For imports, the agency included electronics, medical and pharmaceutical products and metalliferous ores and metal scrap in the list.

In manufacturing, the NSCB included wearing apparel, office, accounting and computing machinery, and radio, TV and communications equipment and apparatus in the
computation of GDP.

On the expenditure side, the NSCB included health, transport, communication, recreation and culture, education and restaurants and hotels.

The NSCB said the item known as personal consumption expenditure (PCE) will now be called household final consumption expenditure.

Virola said the NSCB will announce the official first-quarter national income accounts on May 30, using 2000 as the base year.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Cayetano Paderanga told reporters that the country’s GDP may have grown over 6 percent in the first quarter.

Paderanga attributed the rosy GDP estimate to the seven-year high farm-sector growth of 4.1 percent.

First Metro Investment Corp. and University of Asia and the Pacific earlier said that GDP may grow below 6 percent in the first quarter.

The government expects the economy to grow 7 to 8 percent this year and until 2016. –DARWIN G. AMOJELAR, SENIOR REPORTER, Manila Times