Exports jumped 19.7% in November

The growth in exports of Philippine-made goods hit a five-month high last November alongside a rise in domestic manufacturing activities that month, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Friday.

The end-November 2014 exports figure also already exceeded the total value of outbound shipments for the entire 2013.

Preliminary PSA data showed that the value of exports in November last year jumped 19.7 percent to $5.18 billion from $4.32 billion recorded during the same month in 2013.

The export revenues last November were also higher than October’s $5.17 billion.

The year-on-year increase posted in November was the fastest since July, although slower than the 21.3-percent growth recorded last June—the highest thus far in 2014.

At the end of the first 11 months of last year, total exports rose by 10 percent to $56.93 billion, compared with the $51.74 billion during the same 11-month period in 2013.

The January-to-November figure was higher than 2013’s merchandise exports that totaled $56.7 billion.

Last December, Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan expressed confidence that the country’s actual export receipts for the entire 2014 would exceed the 6-percent growth target for the year.

In a statement, National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Deputy Director-General Emmanuel F. Esguerra attributed the higher November exports to an increased demand from China, Taiwan and the United States for Philippine agro-based, manufactured as well as mineral products.

The Neda noted that the robust growth registered in November was the highest among East and Southeast Asian economies that month, exceeding the 10.8-percent jump in Vietnam’s exports, 4.7 percent in China, 3.7 percent in Taiwan and 2.8 percent in Hong Kong. Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand saw their exports decrease year-on-year last November.

The PSA said in its report that nine of the top 10 commodities shipped out in November were the growth drivers that month: Coconut oil; cathodes and sections of cathodes of refined copper; machinery and transport equipment; chemicals; woodcraft and furniture; ignition wiring set and other wiring sets used in vehicles, aircraft and ships; electronic products; articles of apparel and clothing accessories, and metal components.

Shipments of electronics—the country’s top merchandise export—rose 27 percent year-on-year last November to $2.55 billion, or almost half of the month’s total.

Manufactured goods as a whole saw shipments grow by 18.9 percent year-on-year to $4.45 billion.

The top 10 destinations of Philippine exports in November were Japan, US, China, Taiwan,     Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, South Korea, Thailand and the Netherlands.

In a separate report released also Friday, the PSA said the amount of locally manufactured products as measured by the Value of Production Index or VaPI gained an increment of 7.5 percent last November alongside an increase in volume as measured by the Volume of Production Index or VoPI, which grew by 8.1 percent.

The PSA’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries or Missi for November showed that significant increases in value were posted in the sectors of printing, fabricated metals, beverages, paper and paper products, non-metallic minerals and leather goods.

The biggest increases in volumes, meanwhile, were registered by domestic firms engaged in printing as well as the production of fabricated metals, beverages, non-metallic minerals, paper products, and basic minerals.