As reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) and based on the 2018 rebased National Income Accounts, gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.2% in the first quarter of 2020 from an expansion of 5.7% in the same period in 2019. Reeling from the effects of the Taal volcano eruption and the COVID-19 pandemic, the contraction in the local economy marks the first time that the Philippine economy has declined since the fourth quarter of 1998 during the Asian Financial Crisis, further aggravated by an El Niño phenomenon.
