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7.0% growth in first 11 months among strongest in Asia PHL EXPORTS UP BY 5.5 PERCENT IN NOVEMBER 2012

MANILA—Total merchandise exports grew by 5.5 percent to US$3.6 billion in November 2012 from the US$3.4 billion of the same month in 2011 due to higher earnings from manufactured goods, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).

“The positive performance can be traced to the observed improvement of business sentiment indicators globally, which may have prompted the increased foreign purchases,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan.

Exports of manufactured goods rose by 15.5 percent to US$3.1 billion in November 2012 from US$2.7 billion in November 2011.  This growth was due to the continued increase in international receipts in electronics (13.3%), machinery and transport equipment (123.5%), wood manufactures (58.9%), and electronic equipment and parts (44.6%).

Balisacan noted that the growth in exports of electronics products came from semiconductors (15.5%), office equipment (266.4%), control and instrumentation (983.4%), telecommunication (269.7%), and automotive electronics (131.8%).

“The growth in semiconductors sales followed the 2.0-percent annual increase of global chip sales in November 2012.  This marks the electronics industry’s recovery following a series of contractions in the initial months of 2012,” the Cabinet official said.

On the other hand, lower receipts from total agro-based exports, which fell by 47.8 percent in November 2012, partially moderated exports growth.  This is due to the negative outturn in the value of centrifugal and refined sugar (-99.9%) and bananas (-51.7%).

“The significant drop in the exportation of sugar products may be due to the postponement of shipments to the United States because of abundant production in the said country and in Mexico, which has unrestricted access to the market.  As to the drop in exports receipts from bananas, this can be traced to price effects as volume actually increased by 41.4 percent,” said Balisacan.

Meanwhile, from January to November 2012, merchandise exports grew by 7.0 percent to US$48.0 billion from US$44.9 billion in the same period in 2011.  This makes the country’s export performance for the said period the strongest among selected Asian countries, after Vietnam (18.5%) and China (7.3%).

Lower positive exports performance from January to November 2011 were recorded in Thailand (2.3%), Hong Kong (2.2%) and Singapore (0.5%), while contractions were observed for Indonesia (-6.3%), Taiwan (-3.3%), Japan (-2.0%) and Korea (-0.9%).

The top export market in November 2012 was Japan, with a share of 20.8 percent in total receipts.  Japan exports of wood manufactures, semiconductors and electronic equipment and parts reached US740.2 million, which is a 2.5 percent increase year-on-year.

The United States of America came in second with a 12.9-percent share, followed by Hong Kong (10.53%), the People’s Republic of China (10.47%), and Singapore (8.2%).

M.R. No. 2013-003

10 January 2013

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