While the combined agriculture, fishery and forestry sector growth decelerated to 2.4% from 4.8%, owing to the mild dryspell, industrial performance almost doubled to 4.0% from 2.1%, sustained by the growth in mining and quarrying as well as in manufacturing. Manufacturing production more than doubled to 5.3% from 2.4% despite a slowdown in food manufacturing to 8.8% from 10.6%.

As inflows from OFW compensation stepped up to 12.6% from 1.8%, net factor income from abroad accelerated to 21.0% from 10.2%, bringing GNP growth higher to 5.6% from 4.3%. With double digit growth in spending on utilities, and on transportation and communication, personal consumption grew faster at 4.9% from 3.5%, accounting for 63.0% of GNP. As government spending continued to contract, capital formation recovered from the slump due to oil inventory build-up in the run-up to the war in Iraq. Thus, growth in overall domestic demand turned around to 8.0% from a contraction of 0.4% a year ago. Exports, led by semiconductors, garments and crude coconut oil; as well as a record-high imports, notably of mineral fuels and electrical machinery, likewise reversed their year-ago downturns.

Meanwhile, revisions in the national accounts brought down overall 2002 GDP growth rate to 4.4% from a previous estimate of 4.6% and GNP expansion pace to 4.5% from 5.2%. Among the major changes are an 80.7% contraction in the forestry subsector in the second quarter of 2002 from an earlier reported 6.0% growth; and the reversal in factor outflows in the second and third quarters of 2002.