MANILA, Philippines — Philippine factory activity growth contracted for the tenth straight month in September, and the government now pins its hopes on demand during the holiday season and higher infrastructure spending to give the sector a boost.
Data released Tuesday by the Philippine Statistics Authority showed manufacturing growth — as measured by the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) — dropped 3% in September from 1.3% increase in the same month last year.
The sector has been declining since December last year, when VoPI sagged 9.3%.
“Despite the slowdown in the overall performance of the manufacturing sector for September 2019, we have observed improvements in various subsectors which can be attributed to the upcoming holiday season alongside lower inflation, stable exchange rate, and lower interest rate,” Socioeconomic Planning Undersecretary Adoracion Navarro said.
Adoracion added that higher infrastructure spending will sustain the demand for construction-related manufactures and support the sector’s growth. — Ian Nicolas Cigaral