Exports down 12.8% in April to $4.04B

Exports remained a drag on the Philippine economy, falling 12.8 percent to $4.04 billion in April from a year ago as the global environment remained weak.

The National Statistics Office on Tuesday reported that export earnings in April brought the total for the first four months of the year to $17.51 billion, down 8 percent year on year.

The discouraging exports figure has prompted the government to consider revising its official exports growth target of 10 percent for 2013.

“The export revenues as of April reflected the weakness of the global economy. It shows that industrialized economies, including the eurozone, the United States and Japan, are not yet out of the woods,” said Rosemarie Edillon, assistant secretary general of the National Economic and Development Authority.

“We are currently reviewing the exports growth target based on projections, even by the International Monetary Fund, that the global economy may remain weak,” Edillon added.

Data from the NSO showed that the drop in earnings in April was driven largely by the decline in global demand for electronics, the country’s leading export that accounted for about 40 percent of total receipts for the month. Electronics exports, composed mainly of intermediate goods for consumer electronic products, dropped year on year by 0.4 percent to $1.64 billion in April.

Other top exports for April were woodcraft and furniture (up 97.3 percent to $137.23 million), mineral products (up 180.4 percent to $204.51 million), machinery and transport equipment chemicals (down 34.8 percent to $196.65 million) and clothing accessories (up 0.7 percent to $152.25 million).

Meantime, the NSO also reported that manufacturing output in April grew despite the slack in exports.

Data showed that manufacturing output in terms of volume, as measured by the volume of production index (VoPI), grew by 10.3 percent in April from a year ago, accelerating from the 0.1-percent rise in March.

Manufacturing output in terms of value, measured by the value of production index (VaPI), grew by 0.9 percent year on year in April, reversing the 9.3-percent decline in March.—Michelle V. Remo