Exports up 2.9% to $5.173 B in October

MANILA, Philippines - Merchandise exports went up 2.9 percent in October from a year ago driven by the performance of electronic products and four other major commodities.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said yesterday the country’s outbound shipments of merchandise goods reached $5.173 billion in October this year, higher than the $5.027 billion in the same month last year.

The rise in export sales was due to the positive growth performance of electronic products, the country’s top export, which grew 4.5 percent to $2.226 billion in October this year from the previous year’s $2.130 billion.

Other major commodities which supported the higher export revenues in October were machinery and transport equipment, coconut oil, other manufactures; and metal components.

The PSA noted that Japan remained the country’s top destination of Philippine exports in October with its 21.7 percent share valued at $1.124 billion which climbed 4.7 percent from $1.073 billion a year ago.

Cumulative exports for the January to October period climbed 9.2 percent to $51.769 billion this year from $47.413 billion in the same period of 2013.

Socioeconomic planning chief Arsenio Balisacan said in a statement the October result puts the country in a relatively better position than its neighbors as it managed to sustain growth amid weak exports performance of almost half of the trade-oriented Asian economies.

Vietnam led the pack with a 12.5-percent increase in exports, followed by the People’s Republic of China (11.6 percent), Thailand (four percent), the Philippines (2.9 percent), the Republic of Korea (2.3 percent), and Taiwan (0.7 percent).

Negative growth rates, meanwhile, were recorded in Singapore (-9.2 percent), Malaysia (-5.8 percent), Indonesia (-2.2 percent), Hong Kong (-1.6 percent), and Japan (-0.8 percent).

“We must remain vigilant, however, as the October performance of the exports sector generally reflected the softening of the country’s main trading partners. Major economies such as Japan, China and the Euro area are facing a myriad of economic difficulties which could dampen exports growth in the short run,” Balisacan said.

He noted though that exporters maintain a positive outlook for the last quarter of the year due to increased consumer spending during the holiday season, abundance of raw materials and transfer of production activities of some firms from China and Thailand to the Philippines.

“Should these materialize, export performance for the remaining period of the year should at least remain positive despite economic headwinds in other economies,” he said.

For his part, Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. said in a text message the country “can do 10 percent (growth)” this year.

The country’s merchandise exports were valued at $53.978 billion last year.