Manufacturing output weakest in 19 years

MANILA, Philippines — Factory output declined to its weakest level in 19 years in April, the first full month of the imposition of the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine that severely restricted the movement of people and production of goods, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

Manufacturing output, as measured by the Volume of Production Index (VoPI), declined at a faster pace of 59.8 percent from 7.7 percent in March and 11.8 percent in April 2019.

The Value of Production Index (VaPI) also declined at a faster pace of 61.4 percent in April from 12.4 percent in March and 11.8 percent in April 2019.

The April declines in both indexes were the highest since 2001.

Contractions in output and value were seen across all 20 major industry groups.

PSA noted that three industries had “very minimal business operations” during the period. These were leather products with a 99 percent decline in output, footwear and wearing apparel with a 97.8 percent decline in output, and furniture and fixtures with a 91.7 percent decline in production.

Factories operated at 70 percent capacity on average in April, even lower than the 77.9 percent average in March.

Only 23.9 percent of manufacturing facilities operated at full capacity while 33 percent operated below  70 percent capacity.

Those that operated at even below 50 percent capacity made up 10.7 percent of the factories in the country.

Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Chua said improvements in manufacturing conditions can be seen in the following months as lockdown restrictions are eased and most of the country transition to general Community quarantine, the less severe form of the ECQ.

“As we shift from ECQ to GCQ, we will be seeing improvements in the succeeding months,” he said.