The Philippine economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter, officially entering recession territory, data by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

The Philippine gross domestic product (GDP) shrank 16.5% in the second quarter, the PSA reported earlier this morning.
The preliminary figure was lower than the 0.7% decline in the previous quarter and a reversal from the 5.4% growth in the second quarter of 2019.

This was the biggest contraction based on available PSA data. The second-largest drop was in the third quarter of 1984 when the economy posted a 10.7% decline.

The second-quarter result also put the Philippines into a technical recession—defined as the economy’s GDP posting two straight quarters of decline—for the first time since 1991.

The latest figure was lower than the median decline of 11% in a BusinessWorld poll of 17 economists conducted last week.

The country’s first-half GDP performance stood at -8.6%, way off the expected contraction of the government at 2.0-3.4% this year.

Gross national income—the sum of the nation’s GDP and net income received from overseas— posted a 17% decline in the April-June period compared to 4.9% growth in the 2019’s comparable three months. — Marissa Mae M. Ramos

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