The Philippines Spirals into Recession Following Months-Long Lockdowns

MANILA, KOMPAS.com – Months-long coronavirus lockdowns sent the Philippines into a recession after the country experienced its biggest quarterly contraction on record.

Philippine Statistics Authority data showed the Philippines’s gross domestic product shrank 16.5 percent on-year in the second quarter.

The economic results came as a result of the world’s longest stay-at-home orders to slow Covid-19 virus transmissions in the Southeast Asian nation.

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The Philippines is not the only country with a battered economy as the coronavirus pandemic has devastated economies globally.

Businesses have been wrecked and millions of Filipinos have been forced out of work as the national government forged ahead with measures to contain the disease.

It followed a revised 0.7 percent contraction in the first three months of the year and marked the biggest reduction in economic activity since records began in 1981 during the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship. It is the country's first recession in three decades.

The outlook for the archipelago is bleak, with the number of coronavirus infections surging past 115,000 this week — a more than fivefold increase since early June when the economy-crippling restrictions were eased.

"Without doubt, the pandemic and its adverse effect on the economy are testing the economy like never before," said acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua.

"But unlike past crises, the Philippines is now in a much stronger position to address the crisis."