Cebu’s economy continued to expand in 2025, but both the province and Cebu City posted slower growth than they did a year earlier, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Cebu Province’s economy grew by 2.7 percent in 2025, sharply lower than its 7.4 percent expansion in 2024.
Cebu City likewise recorded slower growth at 5.8 percent, compared with 7 percent the previous year.
The PSA Cebu Provincial Statistical Office released the figures Thursday, Oct. 1, during an information dissemination event on the 2025 Provincial Product Accounts (PPA).
Cebu Province, excluding Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City and Mandaue City, recorded a gross domestic product (GDP) of P453.76 billion in 2025, up from P441.65 billion in 2024.
Cebu City’s GDP also increased, reaching P353.81 billion from P334.35 billion the previous year.
GDP measures the value of goods and services produced within an economy and is used to track the size and performance of economic activity. Its growth rate indicates whether an economy is expanding or slowing over a given period.
In Cebu Province, human health and social work activities posted the fastest growth among industries at 11.8 percent.
Public administration and defense, including compulsory social security, grew by 11.3 percent, while financial and insurance activities expanded by 9.6 percent.
Mining and quarrying, meanwhile, recorded the largest decline among industries in the province at 13.4 percent.
Cebu City also recorded its fastest industry growth in human health and social work activities at 13.1 percent.
Public administration and defense, including compulsory social security, grew by 9.3 percent, followed by transportation and storage at 7.9 percent.
Cebu City’s per capita GDP rose by 5.7 percent to P365,037 in 2025, exceeding Central Visayas’ per capita GDP of P192,739.
Cebu Province posted a per capita GDP of P126,961, up 1.3 percent from the previous year but still below the regional figure.
PSA 7 Officer-in-Charge Regional Director Wilma A. Perante said the PPA data could help local governments and sectoral planners make more informed decisions on policies and investments.
“The Provincial Product Accounts give our local chief executives and sectoral planners the precision needed to craft better policies, target investments where they matter most, and bridge economic gaps,” Perante said.
She said the data could guide planning for rural communities, tourism, information technology-business process management and local enterprises.
Central Visayas also slows Cebu’s slower expansion mirrored the broader slowdown in the Central Visayas economy.
The region grew by 7.3 percent in 2024, with Bohol posting 8.8 percent growth, Cebu Province 7.3 percent, Mandaue City 6.9 percent and Lapu-Lapu City 6.5 percent.
In 2025, however, Central Visayas grew by 3.7 percent, with its total economic output reaching P1.32 trillion, Perante said.
She said the region remained the largest economy outside Mega Manila, supported by nearly P35 billion in local investment approvals and continued non-residential development.
Perante said the latest PPA figures should serve as a basis for future planning rather than simply as a record of past economic performance.
“Data with purpose paired with vision becomes a roadmap for progress,” she said.
The regional slowdown also came as the Philippine economy recorded weaker growth in 2025.
Earlier this year, the PSA reported that the national economy grew by 4.4 percent in 2025, down from 5.7 percent in 2024 and its slowest annual growth in five years.
The economy grew by 3 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with 5.3 percent in the same quarter a year earlier and revised 3.9 percent growth in the third quarter.
The national slowdown was attributed in part to weaker government spending, investments and consumer spending amid the controversy surrounding flood control projects.
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