PH MANUFACTURING SECTOR SHOWS SIGNS OF RECOVERY FOR THIRD CONSECUTIVE MONTH – NEDA
The Philippine manufacturing sector showed signs of improvement for the third consecutive month in July 2020. This suggests a turn-around in economic activity, the National Economic and Development Authority said.
While volume and value indices contracted, they both did at slower rates compared to the previous month, as reported today by the Philippine Statistics Authority in its Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI) for July 2020.
The Volume of Production Index (VoPI) and Value of Production Index (VaPI) declined by 11.9 percent and 14.8 percent year-on-year, respectively. These are better than the VoPI and VaPI of -12.5 percent and -16.0 percent recorded in June 2020.
“While manufacturing is not yet in the positive territory, the trends of the volume and value of production in the last three months indicate an improvement in the trajectory of economic activity. This momentum suggests a gradual recovery of demand in the coming months until the end of the year,” Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said.
Despite the signs of recovery, NEDA still sees the country’s manufacturing performance to remain subdued in the near-term as businesses expect the pandemic to have a lingering impact on production.
“Sustaining the gradual and calibrated opening of the economy largely depends on the level of community quarantine that would allow businesses to operate and permit workers to remain mobile. To make this possible, safe and a sufficient availability of public transportation can be supported by service contract subsidies if needed,” the NEDA chief said.
To help encourage the resumption of business operations, the government will continue to enforce minimum health standards, which include wearing of face masks and face shields and observing strict social distancing protocols.
MISSI is a report that monitors the production, net sales, inventories, and capacity utilization of selected manufacturing establishments to provide flash indicators on the performance of the manufacturing sector. – END –
