PH workshops at full steam as Christmas nears

Manufacturing sustained growth in August as factories ramped up production ahead of the Christmas holiday season.

The Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries for August 2018 showed the Volume of Production Index (VoPI), a proxy for output of the manufacturing sector, grew 8.8 percent year-on-year, faster than the 0.3-percent growth a year ago.

The VoPI growth in August was nonetheless slower than the 11.9-percent jump in July.

The latest PSA data also showed nine industries posting double-digit growth in August: textiles, up 39.7 percent; petroleum products, up 37.9 percent; miscellaneous manufactures, up 26.6 percent; beverages, up 24.2 percent; paper and paper products, up 18.7 percent; machinery except electrical, up 14.7 percent; rubber and plastic products, up 11.9 percent; non-metallic mineral products, up 10.8 percent; and electrical machinery, up 10.4 percent.

The Value of Production Index (VaPI), or the total worth of manufacturing output, also grew 8.8 percent year-on-year in August, reversing the 0.1-percent decline last year.

The VaPI growth last August was nevertheless lower than the 12.1-percent climb in July.

PSA data showed these eight sectors’ VaPI jumped double-digits in August: petroleum products (up 60.9 percent), textiles (46.3 percent), beverages (41.2 percent); miscellaneous manufactures (31.2 percent), machinery except electrical (22.9 percent), paper and paper products (22.7 percent), electrical machinery (17.5 percent), as well as rubber and plastic products (10.5 percent).

During the economic team’s road show in London last week, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia told UK investors the Philippines was “experiencing a resurgence in the manufacturing sector.”

Pernia also told a separate economic briefing in Manila that the domestic economy was “also undergoing structural transformation as growth is increasingly being driven by investments vis-à-vis consumption on the demand side, and by the industry sector—manufacturing, in particular—relative to the service sector on the supply side.”