Exports continue decline in June

MANILA, Philippines - The country's exports continued to decline for the third consecutive month, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said on Tuesday.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that merchandise exports dropped by 3.3 percent in June from the same period the previous year. Exports in June 2015 decreased from US$5.5 billion last year to $5.3 billion.

“Weak external demand continues to affect the country’s external trade performance, particularly for the merchandise exports sector. Year-to-date outcome, in terms of both value and volume, suggests fragility in the demand, particularly in major trading partners,” NEDA Director-General and Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said.

Balisacan said the decline in exports reflected a fragile global economy. He noted that economies in East and Southeast Asia also recorded a drop in export performance or the same time. Only Vietnam and China registered positive export performance.

Meanwhile, the electronics sector improved as exports of electronic products rose by 9.5 percent in June. This contributed to the country's higher sales of manufactured goods.

“The country’s relatively strong semiconductor exports emulated the progress in the global semiconductors market as worldwide sales continued to expand at its 26th consecutive month, as reported by Semiconductors Industry Association,” Balisacan added.

On the other hand, agricultural exports continued to drop in June, making this the fifth consecutive month of double-digit decline this year. Outward shipments of agro-based products declined by 24.9 percent.

Lower earnings of copper metal and other mineral products resulted to the drop of exports of mineral products by 26.2 percent in June.

“In addition to the frail demand from major economies, the country’s recent external trade performance is also partly due to an abundant supply of industrial commodities, thus revenues from mineral and agro-based exports are seen to continue to decline in the short-term due to falling prices,” the NEDA official said.

Balisacan remains hopeful that positive economic developments in the United States would add to the growth of exports, particularly in consumer goods.