Based on the latest report by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 16.5% in the second quarter of 2020 from an expansion of 5.4% in the same period in 2019 (Figure 1). This is the biggest-ever quarterly plunge since 1981, according to the PSA. With the downward revision in GDP growth to -0.7% in the first quarter of 2020, the Philippines has officially entered a technical recession which is described as two consecutive quarters of declining economic output. For the first six months of 2020, GDP shrank by 9.0% compared to a growth of 5.6% in the same period in 2019.
