EXPORTS GROWTH CONTRACTED FURTHER IN NOVEMBER 2011 – NEDA
MANILA—The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said that the weak performance of merchandise exports in November last year is in large part a result of high cost of raw materials, the lower global spending, and supply chain disruptions caused by the floods in Thailand.
The agency made this statement after the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported that the country’s export revenue in November 2011 amounted to
$3.342 billion, or 19.4-percent lower than the $4.146 billion figure in November 2010.
Secretary Cayetano W. Paderanga Jr. noted that exports of manufactures declined on account of the poor performance of semiconductors, electronic data processing unit, and automotive electronics.
“However, this trend is not unique to the country as worldwide sales of semiconductors suffered a 2.4 percent decline in November 2011,” said Paderanga, who is also NEDA Director-General.
Paderanga said that according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the floods in Thailand have disrupted supply chains, which impacted on semiconductor sales.
He added that Thailand also posted a negative exports growth of 12.5 percent in November 2011, as most industries temporarily scaled back their production because of difficulties in exporting and importing goods from flood-hit areas in the country.
Looking at the performance of other countries, “in addition to decelerating exports growth, the very small share of the Philippines in the exports market is also worth noting. In contrast, the neighboring countries are experiencing higher exports growth rate and the revenues from exports were also at much higher levels in November 2011,” the Cabinet official said.
Paderanga said that the country, through the Export Development Council, the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Agriculture should adopt a concrete plan on how aimed at capturing a larger share of the global export market.
Despite the contraction in total merchandise exports, Paderanga noted several export commodity groups that posted gains, such as total agro-based products (40.1%), minerals (18.1%), and forest products (159.2%).
“Higher exports of total agro-based commodities benefitted from higher earnings from sugar products (11,945.2%), bananas (113.2%), and canned pineapple (160.2%). In addition, there was significant increase in demand for sugar products from Japan, Republic of Korea and United States of America, for bananas from People’s Republic of China and Japan, and for canned pineapple from Singapore and UK of Great Britain and North Ireland,”
said the Cabinet official.
M.R. No. 2012-002
13 January 2012
