The Ilocos Norte provincial government is working to sustain local economic growth and maintain its position as the strongest among the region’s four provinces.
This is despite the slight decline in the province’s gross domestic product (GDP) to 8.6 percent in 2023 from year-ago’s 8.7 percent, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Marilyn Vergara, chief statistical specialist of the PSA Provincial Statistical Office in Ilocos Norte said in an interview Friday that the top contributors include wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, electricity, steam, water and waste management, and construction.
Among the 16 industries, the fastest growing were other services at 29.7 percent, followed by accommodation and food service activities, 28.1 percent; and transportation and storage, 15.6 percent.
On the other hand, mining and quarrying, declined by 1.0 percent.
The PSA said Ilocos Norte is the fifth fastest growing economy among the provinces in the country.
“The result brought by PSA should inspire all Ilocanos to push further and to climb even higher,” Vergara said.
Engr. Pedro Agcaoili, head of the Ilocos Norte provincial planning and development office, noted that the decline in GDP last year is minimal.
He, however, said the provincial government is committed to addressing this through aggressive promotion and generation of economic activities to improve the quality of life of the Ilocanos.
“There had been a continuous building and strengthening of local capacities, technologies, infrastructure and social capital to boost agricultural productivity, sustainable tourism development and trade,” he said.
Meanwhile, the provincial inflation rate was recorded at 1.4 percent in November, a 0.8 percent increase from 0.6 percent last October due to faster rate of uptick in the prices of food and non-alcoholic beverages.
Despite the uptick, the latest inflation rate level is 1.1 percentage points lower than the national inflation rate of 2.5 percent in November. (PNA)
