15 industries drag down PH’s recovering factory output

by Ben O. de Vera, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 5 Dec 2020

The country’s factory output volumes and their values further contracted in October as 15 industries posted lower year-on-year production, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday.

The PSA’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries for October showed the volume of production index (VoPI) dropped 11.3 percent while the value of production index (VaPI) slid by a faster 14.2 percent.

A proxy for factory output, ­VoPI’s contraction already narrowed to 8.6 percent in September.

“Contributory to the faster decline of VoPI for the manu­facturing sector in October were the reductions in the indices of 15 industry groups. The industry groups that led the contraction of VoPI were petroleum products (down 99.1 percent), printing (down 53.4 percent) and tobacco products (down 48.7 percent),” the PSA said in a report.

The decline in October VaPI also came on the back of negative growth rates posted by the 15 industries, with biggest drops recorded in petroleum products (down 99.2 percent), printing (down 52.8 percent) and footwear and wearing apparel (down 49.2 percent), the PSA said. October’s VaPI fell at a faster pace than September’s 12.4-percent contraction.

The 11 other industries that posted both VoPI and VaPI declines in October were: beverages, fabricated metal products, furniture and fixtures, leather products, machinery except electrical, nonmetallic mineral products, paper and paper products, rubber and plastic products, textiles, transport equipment, and wood and wood products.

Only five manufacturing sectors posted gains: basic metals, chemical products, electrical machinery, food manufacturing and miscellaneous manufactures, PSA data showed.

PSA data showed both VaPI and VoPI have been posting year-on-year declines every month beginning in March, or when the stringent enhanced community quarantine to contain the pandemic was first imposed and stopped 75 percent of the economy, resulting in thousands of businesses closing down and millions of jobs lost.

In his speech before Japanese businessmen last Tuesday, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the narrowing contraction in value and volume—at least until September—showed the country’s attempt at recovery from the pandemic-induced recession.