Factory output growth slowed sharply in Feb.

MANILA, Philippines—Growth of the country’s factory output slowed sharply in February due to the slowdown in production of furniture and tobacco products, the government reported this week.

Data released on Thursday showed manufacturing output, measured in terms of volume, grew by just 1.2 percent in February. This was much slower than the 5-percent expansion in January, preliminary results of the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (Missi) showed.

The growth in production of furniture and fixtures slowed to 130.6 percent from 238.2 percent the month before. The expansion in tobacco products also slowed to 102.6 percent from 107.4 percent.

The slowdown in these sectors were partially offset by the growth in seven sectors, namely machinery, except electrical  (75.9 percent); publishing and printing (53.1 percent); fabricated metal products (36.0 percent); textiles (35.7 percent);  wood and wood products (18.4 percent); paper and paper products (12.3 percent); and leather products (11.4 percent).

On a month-on-month basis, production volume decreased by 2.5 percent in February 2014.

“Two of the nine sectors that posted decrements significantly pulled down the volume of production,” the National Statistics Office (NSO) said.

These were petroleum products (-28.1 percent) and wood and wood products (-20.6 percent).

The value of manufactured goods rose by of 0.9 percent in February 2014. This was led by the triple-digit increase of tobacco products (102.2 percent) and the double-digit growth registered by nine sectors.

These were furniture and fixtures (75.9 percent); machinery, except electrical (61.3 percent); publishing and printing (53.1 percent); textiles (35.4 percent); fabricated metal products (30.5 percent); wood and wood products (21.6 percent); leather products (15.2 percent); paper and paper products (14.4 percent); and electrical machinery (12.9 percent).