The Philippine economy, as measured by the gross domestic product (GDP), contracted by 11.5% in the third quarter of 2020 from an expansion of 6.3% in the same period in 2019 (Figure 1). While local economy continues to reel from the COVID-19 pandemic, the contraction in the third quarter is an improvement from the 16.9% decline in the second quarter of 2020. With the 10% contraction in the first three quarters of 2020, the economy needs to grow by 7.1% in the fourth quarter to meet the government’s full year target of -5.5%.
