The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 4.2 percent in the first quarter of 2021 from -0.7 percent in the same period in 2020 (Figure 1). This translates to PhP187.7 billion real value loss, and marks the fifth straight quarter of decline of the GDP since the first quarter of 2020. For each of the next three quarters of 2021, the Philippine economy needs to expand by roughly 10.1 percent in order to reach the lower end of the government’s full year growth target of 6.5 percent.
