Overall Performance

Expenditures on Gross Regional Domestic product, which is the sum of all final use of goods and services in the regional economies amounted to P1,081.5 billion in 2003 equivalent to a 4.7 percent real growth, from 4.3 percent in 2002. All regions registered positive growths, with MIMAROPA a newly created region manifesting a double-digit growth of 11.0 percent. The least performer is CARAGA with a growth of 0.9 percent.

The Gross Regional Domestic Expenditures (GRDE) Accounts for 2002 and 2003 are now disaggregated by region following the new regional configurations in accordance with Executive Orders Numbered 103 and 36, where Region IV is divided into CALABARZON (Region IV-A) and MIMAROPA (Region IV-B) and the province of Aurora is transferred from Region IV to Region III. Executive Order No. 36 on the other hand, provides for the reorganization of the Administrative Regions in Mindanao.

For 2003, total final expenditures for all three island groups continued to increase, with Luzon and Visayas posting higher growths compared to that of the previous year. Luzon grew at about the same rate as Total Expenditures on Gross Domestic Product at 4.7 percent which exceeded the 4.4 percent reported in 2002. This is attributed to the good performances of all the regions in Luzon. Higher increases in spending in 2003 were reported by the following regions: National Capital Region (NCR) with 5.3 percent from 3.1 percent in 2002, MIMAROPA (Region IV-B) with 11.0 percent and Cagayan Valley (Region II) with 1.3 percent from negative 1.2 percent in 2002. The rest of the Luzon regions also reported improvements in 2003 but at a decelerated pace. The 5.3 percent increase posted by NCR was ascribed to the marked rise in expenditures on PCE, GCE and capital formation.

Similarly, all regions in the Visayas registered accelerations in expenditures compared to that in 2002, resulting in a total increase of 5.3 percent. The big hike in expenditures was reported by Eastern Visayas (Region III), from 2.6 percent in 2002 to 5.2 percent in 2003. Western Visayas (Region VI) grew by 5.9 percent from 4.4 percent in 2002. Likewise, Central Visayas (Region VII) grew by 4.6 percent from 2.9 percent.

On the other hand, Mindanao spent at a lower rate of 4.2 percent in 2003 from 5.0 percent in 2002 which translated into level of about P193 billion. All regions in Mindanao posted positive growths for 2003.

The NCR, which accounted for 30.5 percent of total final expenditures, contributed P330.0 billion in 2003. CALABARZON (Region IVA) a newly created region had a share of 13.0 percent, while Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) contributed the least to total expenditures (0.9 percent) or P9.9 billion in 2003.