Approved building permits posts 3.8 percent growth

Approved building permits nationwide reached 24,438 applications during the third quarter of 2005. This represents a modest increase of 3.8 percent from 23,540 approved building permits recorded during the same period of 2004.
An increase in applications over the same period of the previous year was observed for residential and non-residential building construction. Approved building permits for residential building construction increased by 6.5 percent to 17,129 from 16,086 recorded during the same period of 2004. Those for non-residential building construction slightly went up by 1.7 percent to 2,766 from 2,721 approved building permits. On the other hand, combined approved building permits for additions, alterations and repairs showed a decline of 4.0 percent from 4,733 to 4,543 approved building permits. Figure 1 compares the number of approved building permits by type of building for the third quarters of 2005 and 2004.

Total value of domestic trade in 2001 amounted to P338.90 billion, higher by 25.2 percent from the P270.75 billion reported in the year 2000. Quantity traded, however, recorded 19.6 million tons, an increase of 17.6 percent compared to the previous year?s figure of 16.7 million tons. Commodities were mostly traded via water, with value and quantity comprising 99.2 percent and 99.7 percent, respectively.