MANILA, Philippines — The COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters such as the Taal volcanic eruption and a string of strong typhoons have inflicted the Philippines’ worst post-war recession in 2020, with the economy shrinking by a record 9.5 percent.
National Statistician Claire Dennis Mapa told a press conference Thursday that gross domestic product (GDP) fell 8.3 percent year-on-year during the fourth quarter.
The actual full-year outturn reached the upper end of the government’s estimates of GDP contracting by 8.5-9.5 percent last year.
Last year’s recession cut short 21 straight years of economic growth after the 0.5-percent full-year GDP decline in 1998, at the height of the Asian financial crisis.
Prior to 2020, the previous worst recession was in 1984, when the economy shrank by 7 percent during the waning years of the Marcos dictatorship saddled with a debt crisis.
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