In the first two months of the year, the Philippines ranked third in terms of merchandise exports growth among selected trade-oriented Asian countries, a “signal of a robust export sector” despite dropping one notch from its ranking in the previous month, a top official of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said.
DTI’s Export Marketing Bureau (DTI-EMB) Director Senen M. Perlada told the Inquirer in a text message that the Philippines followed the growth rates of Indonesia and Malaysia, which placed first and second, respectively, in a list of 10 countries.
Other countries selected for this analysis are South Korea, Thailand, China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and Hong Kong.
While he said he did not have data on hand about last year’s ranking for comparison, he said the “Philippines was definitely at a decline” in the first two months of 2016.
At the end of January this year, the Philippines placed second in the list, before dropping to the ninth place in February, he said.
In a statement yesterday, Perlada said he was expecting exports to sustain its path of recovery, supported by the government’s focus on improving economic relations with Asean neighbors and China.
“We see a trend of recovery among these economies in the first two months of 2017. For the Philippines, the numbers are healthy. While we ranked 9th for this month, on a year-to-date analysis… we placed third in terms of export growth. This is a signal of a robust export sector,” he said.
The country’s merchandise exports have been growing in the past two months, picking up after a 4.4-percent decline in 2016, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). The Philippines capped 2016 with $56.23 billion worth of exported goods, down from $58.83 billion the year earlier.
This year offers a more optimistic picture for the sector. Based on PSA’s most recent data, merchandise exports went up 11 percent in February to $4.78 billion from $4.31 billion in the same month last year.