Philippine merchandise exports grew by 11 percent to $5.227 billion in March from $4.699 billion a year earlier, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported Friday, citing higher shipments in electronics and other manufactures.
Receipts from electronics totaled $2.166 billion, up 10.1 percent from $1.967 billion in the same comparable period.
Semiconductors accounted for 29.0 percent of total exports. But export earnings from this sector were down 7.8 percent $1.513 billion from $1.641 billion.
Other manufactures, which usually include metals and non-metallic minerals and paper, brought in $387.85 million in revenues – a 12.3 percent decline from $442.42 million.
“Manufactures remain as the major contributor for export growth,” Arsenio M. Balisacan, National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) director-general, said in a separate statement Friday.
“Accounting for 84.5 percent of our total merchandise exports, this means that we are riding the wave of a sustained expansion in global manufacturing activity,” he said.
Receipts from manufactured goods amounted to $4.4 billion, up 13.5 percent from $3.9 billion, making up for the slack in other manufactures and semiconductors, government data showed.
Agro-based products raked in $469.2 million, up 22.1 percent from $384.3 million.
“Higher domestic production of banana, mango and pineapple in the fourth quarter of 2013, along with strong demand from Japan, China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Middle East and the United States of America, boosted the export volume of these goods,” Balisacan said.
“The Philippines’ sugar quota commitment with the USA also contributed to higher export volume of sugar products in March 2014,” the NEDA chief noted.
The Philippines was able to ship 45.3 million gross kilos of centrifugal and refined sugar to the US, the first such shipment since November 2013 when production was hindered by Typhoon Yolanda. Shipments of the commodity were also affected by a decision of the Sugar Regulatory Authority to cut the allocation for exports to the world market, according to NEDA.
Shipments of forest products amounted to $9.9 million, up 76.1 percent. “The higher international prices of other forest products and logs may have contributed to the gains in the exports value of these commodities,” Balisacan said.
On the other hand, export revenues from mineral products – up 0.8 percent – was attributed largely to demand for iron ore by Japan.
PSA showed shipments of petroleum products dropped 76.5 percent to $17.5 million from $74.3 million. “Despite the weak performance in outward shipments of petroleum, the Philippines remains among the top performers in merchandise exports growth, alongside Vietnam,” the NEDA chief noted.
Total exports in the first quarter reached $14.3 billion, up 6.5 percent from $13.4 billion.
In March, Japan was the top buyer of Philippine exports. Total shipments to Japanese buyers reached $1.3 billion or 25 percent of receipts for the month.
The US market took 13.7 percent of Philippine shipments, followed by China at 10.7 percent, Hong Kong at 7.9 percent, Singapore at 7.5 percent, Germany at 4.6 percent, South Korea at 4.5 percent, Thailand at 3.8 percent, Taiwan at 3.5 percent, and the Netherlands at 3.3 percent. – VS, GMA News
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
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