The National Statistical Coordination Board, through a simultaneous news conference across regions, released the official economic performance of the regions for 2009 last August 5, 2010, with Northern Mindanao’s economy growing by 2.9 percent, a deceleration from 5.2 percent in 2008. The said valuation was based on the production approach of estimating the gross domestic product of the region by sectors; such approach focuses on finding the total output of a region by directly finding the total value of all goods and services produced.

Recently, NSCB released the Expenditure on Gross Regional Domestic Product, which estimates the regional economy through expenditure approach; such approach focuses on finding the total output of the region by finding the total amount of money spent.

The Expenditure on Gross Regional Domestic Product showed that Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) grew by 4.9 percent amidst the dubbed global financial crisis in 2009, albeit a slow down from its 6.0 percent growth in 2008. PCE provided 3.0 percentage points to the 2.9 percent total regional economic growth, buffering the economy from the declines of the Capital Formation (also known as Investment) and Net Exports, posting negative growths of 16.3 percent and 0.7 percent in 2009 from positive growths of 14.2 percent and 4.1 percent in 2008, respectively. The boost in government spending raised Government Consumption to 9.8 percent in 2009 from 1.0 percent the previous period.

In terms of expenditures in 2009, the regional economy is comprised of 62.0 percent Personal Consumption, 4.3 percent Government Consumption, 10.6 percent Capital Formation, and 23.1 percent Net Exports.

Northern Mindanao’s economy decelerated from a 5.2 percent growth rate in 2008 to a 2.9 percent growth rate in 2009; the region’s lowest economic performance since Northern Mindanao was reorganized by virtue of Executive Order 36, series of 2001. This was brought about by the decelerations in all the region’s sectors.

Services remained to be the region’s largest sector, comprising 38.0 percent of the regional economy in 2009. Services decelerated slightly from 2.1 percent in 2008 to
1.7 percent in 2009 due to the deceleration of Trade, the dominant subsector in Service sector, from 1.6 percent in 2008 to 0.8 percent in 2009. Moreover, TCS also decelerated from 4.6 percent to 2.0 percent. Government Services posted the best performance among the subsectors in the Service sector as it accelerated from 1.5 percent in 2008 to 5.1percent in 2009. Finance, ODRE and Private Services also improved in 2009 posting higher growth rates of 3.5 percent, 2.7 percent and 2.7 percent, from 1.0 percent, 3.5 percent and 1.9 percent in 2008, respectively.

Agriculture, Fishery and Forestry (AFF) contributed 31.6 percent to the total regional economy in 2009. It is composed mainly of the Agriculture and Fisheries subsector, which has always been the region’s largest share holder among the subsectors. AFF decelerated from 10.5 percent in 2008 to 3.9 percent in 2009.This was due to the deceleration of Agriculture and Fisheries from 10.9 percent in 2008 to 4.7 percent in 2009. The deceleration in Agriculture and Fisheries was brought about by the decelerations in all major crops. Forestry, on the other hand, plunged deeper from -11 percent in 2008 to -22 percent in 2009 as production of saw logs in the region further declined.

Northern Mindanao’s Industry sector contributed 30.4 percent to the total regional economy in 2009, with Manufacturing as the dominant subsector. Industry decelerated from 4.1 percent in 2008 to 3.1 percent in 2009 due to the decline in the performance of the EGW from -0.1 percent in 2008 to -3.7 percent in 2009, and the rapid deceleration of Construction from 9.1 percent in 2008 to 1.2 percent in 2009. On the other hand, Manufacturing managed to accelerate slightly from 3.3 percent in 2008 to 4.0 percent in 2009. Mining and Quarrying sustained a high growth of 17.0 percent, although slightly lower than it’s previous growth of 20.0percent.

Over all, AFF contributed most to the economic growth of the region, providing 1.3 percentage points to the 2.9 percent growth of the regional economy. Industry and Services each contributed 0.9 percentage point, and 0.7 percentage point, respectively.