By Minerva Newman CEBU CITY – Central Visayas’s economy grew by 7.6 percent in 2018, the fourth largest contributor to the country’s National Gross Domestic Product (NGDP) with P593.86 billion. Central Visayas (WIKIPEDIA / MANILA BULLETIN) The growth rate is 2.4 percent higher than the 5.2 percent in 2017, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) during a simultaneous nationwide news conference Thursday. PSA Regional Director Ariel Florendo said the services sector remained the top contributor to Central Visayas’ Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) with 56 percent last year. It is followed by the industry sector with 38.8 percent, while agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing (AHFF) sector had 5.2 percent. The services sector includes trade/repair of vehicles, personal/household goods, real estate, renting and business activities, financial intermediation, transport storage and communication. Electricity, gas and water supply also grew by 2.8 percent from a low of 0.9 percent in 2017, while mining and quarrying dropped further, by 7.3 percent from 5.5 percent in 2017, Florendo said. He said the AHFF is the sector to watch because it decelerated from the 2016-2017 growth of 6.8 percent to only 1.4 percent growth in the 2017-2018. Agriculture and forestry recorded a slower growth of 1.1 percent this year as compared to the 9.4 percent in 2017. Fishing, on the other hand, grew by to 3.3 percent from a contraction of 8.5 percent last year. The real per capita GRDP of Central Visayas increased by 6.0 percent or P76,024 from the P71,743 per capita in 2017 while the country’s per capita GRDP increased to P86,370 in 2018 from P82,593 posted last year, Florendo said. The National Capital Region (NCR) has the highest per capita GRDP at P253,893 nearly three times the national average. ARMM had the lowest per capita at P14,657, Florendo noted. Calabarzon (Cavite-Laguna, Batangas-Rizal-Quezon) and the Cordillera Autonomous Region are the other two regions whose per capita GRDP was higher than the national average at P104,708 and P87,722 respectively. The GRDP is the estimated aggregate gross value compiled by PSA to determine the economic performance of a region and the country in general.