
MANILA — The Philippines‘ agricultural output shrank for a third successive quarter in the last three months of 2024, although with lesser declines, with reduced crops, livestock and fish production, the statistics agency said on Tuesday.
Farm output contracted 2.2% in the fourth quarter, an improvement on the 3.2% and 3.6% declines of the second and third quarters, respectively. However, the continued fall does not bode well for Philippine growth.
Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said last week the Philippines may struggle to achieve even the lower end of its 6% to 6.5% gross domestic product goal for 2024, due largely to a spate of tyhoons that may have also impacted agriculture output.
GDP numbers for the fourth quarter and full year 2024 will be released on Jan. 30. Economists in a Reuters poll expect GDP to have expanded 5.4% in the final quarter, more than the third quarter’s 5.2% growth.
Crop output, which accounted for 58.2% of total farm production, shrank 3.1% from a year earlier, the smallest decline since the second quarter of last year, the agency said.
Similarly, the 6.2% drop in fourth quarter livestock production was less than the previous quarter’s 6.7% decline, while fisheries output contracted by 2.1% compared to a 5.0% drop in the prior quarter.
Poultry production remained in positive territory, however, rising 6.1% in the fourth quarter from 5.8% growth in the previous quarter.
— Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Martin Petty