DepDev: Agri sector helped drive Cordillera growth in ’25
BAGUIO CITY—The Cordillera regional economy in 2025 had been robust with a 4.4-percent growth, including a surprise 4.3-percent expansion for the perennially underperforming agriculture sector.
The total value of economic production in the region, known as the gross regional domestic product (GRDP), was P394.96 billion in 2025, its growth driven largely by the service sector, which represented 70 percent of growth, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) during a briefing on Thursday.
Services expanded by 22.6 percent in 2025, it added.
The Cordillera is composed of the provinces of Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao, Abra, Benguet and Mountain Province, and Baguio City, the country’s summer capital which mainly thrives on tourism.
The 2025 GRDP also shows the high growth in education, at 9.5 percent, which makes it one of the fastest growth areas of the regional economy, said Villafe Alibuyog, PSA’s Cordillera director.
Amid the rosy performance, the 2025 numbers actually reflected a slowdown compared to the 4.9-percent growth achieved in 2024, displaying a downward growth trend for the region, said Dolores Molintas, deputy director of the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DepDev) in the Cordillera.
Challenges
“The consistent growth slowdown, and our inability to meet our regional growth targets, means that we could have done more. The 2025 numbers trace the slowdown primarily to the negative growth of mining and quarrying, construction, and a slower growth in services,” she pointed out.
“The slowdown reveals our persistent development challenges which constrains us from achieving our targets. Severe weather, such as last year’s Typhoon ‘Uwan’ (international name: Fung-wong) which caused P8.65 billion in damage and more than the usual class and work suspensions,” Molintas explained.
“Although services remain the main driver of growth, persistent learning deficits, infrastructure gaps, and inequities in access to education and digital connectivity limit improvements in labor productivity and inclusive growth,” she added.
“Externally, the region’s dependence on imported production inputs exposes growth to global price volatility and supply chain risks. We must also acknowledge the damage caused by the flood control corruption scandal, which understandably eroded business and consumer confidence, as evidenced by the decline in investments, and the tempered household consumption and government expenditure,” Molintas said.
Amid a general trend of a growth slowdown, the agriculture sector’s 4.3-percent expansion showed a bright promise—up four times from a 1.3-percent growth in 2024.
Alibuyog said agriculture’s growth in 2025 was the highest recorded since 2018.
The Cordillera’s high-value crop production rose by 6.85 percent last year “from 208,161.57 metric tons in 2024 to 222,412.48 metric tons in 2025,” according to the 2025 regional economic situationer of DepDev.
“Overall, the 2025 performance of the agriculture and fisheries sector reflects a dual reality of resilience and vulnerability. While the sector remains robust and competitive, structural constraints in logistics, market systems, and fisheries development continue to limit inclusive and sustained growth,” said Susan Balanza, planning chief of the Department of Agriculture in the Cordillera.
“Erratic weather conditions, including prolonged dry spells and intense rainfall [in 2025], disrupted production cycles in several areas. Pests and disease outbreaks also affected crop yields while the rising cost of fertilizers and fuel placed additional pressure on farmers’ profitability,” she said.
Aldrin Federico Bahit Jr., PSA chief statistician in the Cordillera, said they could not yet say how the strong 2025 GRDP numbers would cushion the effects of the economic crisis arising from the conflict in the Middle East.
