EXPORTS CONTINUE POSITIVE GROWTH IN OCTOBER PHL among top Asian performers in first 10 mos of 2012
MANILA—Value of merchandise exports grew by 6.1 percent to US$4.4 billion in October 2012, making the Philippines one of the strongest performers among its selected East and Southeast Asian neighbors for the first 10 months of the year, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA).
From January to October 2012, total exports receipts from the Philippines already totaled US$44.5 billion, which is a 7.1-percent jump from the same period last year.
“The year-to-date exports growth of 7.1 percent made the Philippines among the top three performers among selected East and Southeast Asian economies for the said period,” said NEDA officer-in-charge (OIC) Rolando G. Tungpalan.
Citing country data, Tungpalan said that other countries that posted positive exports growth were Vietnam (18.7%), China (7.8%), Hong Kong (1.4%), Thailand, and Singapore (both 0.3%). On the other hand, Indonesia (-6.0%), Taiwan (-3.7%), Japan (-1.4%), and South Korea (-1.3%) experienced contractions.
“The positive outturn of our exports in October reflected the strengthening global economic activity as industrial production and business sentiment indicators primarily point upward,” said Tungpalan.
According to the National Statistics Office (NSO), growth of exports receipts from major commodity groups such as manufactures (6.5%), minerals (21.5%), petroleum products (43.5%) and total agro-based products (1.6%) contributed to the country’s performance in October 2012.
“The increased demand for manufactures was largely due to firming industrial activity in developing economies and in some advanced regions. Exports of Philippines manufactures were supported by electronic equipment and parts, processed food and beverages, wood manufactures, and machinery and transport equipment,” said Tungpalan.
The NEDA official added that exports of agro-based products increased in October 2012 following three consecutive months of contractions. The positive performance was contributed by higher revenues from bananas (101.9%), copra meal/cake (530.1%), coconut oil (5.6%), and fish products (15.7%).
“The growth in banana exports, which contributed about 1.2 percentage points to overall export increase, reflects positive expectations of global demand, specifically from China, which is seen to buy more food products due to the approaching winter season. Meanwhile, coconut oil exports mainly benefited from the robust demand of the country’s traditional foreign markets as well as the ample domestic supply of the said commodity,” Tungpalan said.
Tungpalan also noted that electronics exports reached US$1.9 billion in October 2012, up slightly by 0.3 percent from the same period in 2011. This was due to improved performance of semiconductors (7.5%), office equipment (220.1%), control and instrumentation (1,080.8%), telecommunication (256.7%), and automotive electronics (50.2%).
“The growth in the country’s semiconductor exports partly reflected the increase in chip sales in the American region, particularly in the United States. However, the positive performance of electronics exports was slightly offset by the performance of electronic data processing (EDP). Weak sales of EDP units continued to reflect the consumers’ greater preference for lower-end desktop PCs and notebook computers over higher-performance models on the back of a still sluggish global economy,” said Tungpalan.
According to the NSO, Japan was the top destination of Philippine exports in October 2012, accounting for 16.6 percent of total export receipts. It was followed by Hong Kong (14.7%), United States of America (13.2%), China (12.4%), and South Korea (8.0%).
Tungpalan, who is NEDA Deputy Director-General and head of the agency’s National Development Office for Investment Programming, is currently OIC of NEDA while Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and Director-General Arsenio M. Balisacan is on official business abroad.
M.R. No. 2012-086
11 December 2012
