Industry sales growth slows

Industry sales grew by 7.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011 from year-ago level, the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) said.

The agency said the growth rate for the first three months of this year was, however, lower than the 11.9 percent registered in the same period in 2010 as “all sectors, except transportation and communications, reported slower growths.”

Employment picked up despite the slower growth in revenue, although compensation per employee decelerated.

NSCB Secretary General Romulo A. Virola said in a phone interview that private sector revenue in the first three months of this year was still “good,” considering the huge growth base last year due to election-driven sales.

Economist Cid Terosa said in a text message that the drop was expected because of the high revenue index last year. “Base effects are at work here. This is also true for compensation and compensation per employee,” he said.

NSCB data showed that the revenue generated by the transportation and communications sector grew by 9.2 percent in the first quarter of 2011, which was faster than the 8.3-percent growth in the same period in 2010.

Growth in real-estate sales decelerated to 14.8 percent in the first three months this year from 15.6 percent a year ago; manufacturing, 12.3 percent from 23.9 percent; trade, 5.5 percent from 8.4 percent; finance, 7.5 percent from 10.7 percent, and private services, 4 percent from 7.1 percent.

Despite the slower growth, employment picked up by 3.7 percent in the first quarter of 2011, compared with only 1 percent in the same period last year.

The improvement came from manufacturing, where employment growth accelerated to 5.7 percent this year from 2.4 percent a year ago, and private services, which rebounded to a growth of 0.1 percent from negative 6.1 percent.

The growth in employment was tempered by the decline in the mining and quarrying sector; a slower growth in finance (3 percent from 4.3 percent) and electricity and water (1.2 percent from 1.6 percent), and the zero growth in the real-estate sector.

In the meantime, the growth in the compensation index of industries also slowed to 5.1 percent in the first quarter of 2011 from 6.1 percent in the same period last year.

Compensation in the real-estate sector grew by 22.2 percent compared with 3.1 percent last year; finance, 8.7 percent from 3.3 percent; and private services, 6.4 percent from 4.3 percent.

However, compensation growth in these sectors were offset by declines in the compensation indices of mining and quarrying sector, 1.4 percent from 12.2 percent; manufacturing, 4.9 percent from 7.2 percent; trade, 5.2 percent from 11.2 percent; and transportation and communications, 2.7 percent from 4.3 percent.

Growth in compensation per employee also decelerated to 1.4 percent in the first quarter of 2011 from 5 percent in the same period in 2010.

Real estate and finance rebounded, posting growths in compensation per employee of 22.1 percent this year from -0.8 percent last year and 5.5 percent from -0.9 percent, respectively. However, these were offset by declines in manufacturing, trade, transportation and communications, and mining and quarrying.