THE growth of the country’s gross revenues of industries nationwide continued to slow in the first quarter of 2016, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Based on the Quarterly Economic Indices (QEI) of the Philippines, the country’s total gross revenue index posted a 6.9-percent growth in the first quarter of 2016.
This was slower than the 7.4-percent growth posted last year, but faster than 5.9- percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2015.
“Gross revenue refers to the value of receipts from the shipment of goods produced, resale of goods and services rendered,” the PSA explained.
The growth of real estate’s gross revenue index slowed to 13.2 percent in the first quarter of 2016, from a growth of 13.7 percent in the same period in 2015.
The gross revenue index of transportation and communication, meanwhile, posted a growth of at 9.4 percent. This was also slower than the 12.3 percent it posted in the first quarter of 2015.
Other industries, such as trade, accelerated to 8.8 percent, from 6.1 percent; finance registered a growth of 6.1 percent, from 3.9 percent; manufacturing at 2 percent, from 10.1 percent; and private services at 0.5 percent, from 7.4 percent.
Meanwhile, the total employment index contracted 0.04 percent from a growth of 3.8 percent last year, as well as the total compensation index decelerated with 4.5- percent growth as compared to the 6-percent expansion in the previous year.
In terms of the employment index, Mining and Quarrying and Manufacturing both declined by 6.3 percent and 0.9 percent from a growth of 3.3 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively.
In terms the compensation index, mining and quarrying also contracted 15.4 percent from a 2-percent contraction, and manufacturing declined by 3.4 percent from an expansion of 11.2 percent.
This brought down the total compensation per employee index accelerated by 4.6 percent, from 2.1 percent a year ago.
Industries that decelerated were transportation and communication (0.7 percent, from 1.1 percent), real estate (2.2 percent, from 4.1 percent) and finance (4.7 percent, from 10.2 percent).
“Mining and quarrying and manufacturing declined as compared to the same period last year,” the PSA said.
The QEI provides measures of growth in production, gross revenue, employment and compensation in the various sectors of the economy. The indices can be used as deflators to express a current value in real terms, as bases for wage formulation and for forecasting and projections.
These indices were developed to guide users for a more meaningful economic analysis of current economic behavior and events.