DTI expects exports to recover in 2nd quarter

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) expects exports to recover in the second quarter of the year, even though April marked the fastest decline in 2018 so far.

Senen Perlada, director of the Export Marketing Bureau at the DTI, cited the central bank’s business expectations survey, which showed importers and exporters having an optimistic outlook for the second quarter.

“Based on business expectations, importers and exporters are upbeat that the second quarter would [post] growth,” he said. “We forecast electronics would continue on its growth trend, while non-electronics will start to recover.”

Since the start of the year, merchandise exports have seen a decline in sales when compared to that of 2017, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Perlada, however, clarified that the effect on this year’s numbers might have been “magnified” by a base effect, noting that 2017 figures were revised upward.

Nevertheless, the country still saw its fastest year-on-year decline last April of 8.5 percent to $5.11 billion. This reversed the 30.4-percent growth to $5.59 billion a year ago.