No respite in manufacturing slump: Factory output declines for 9 straight months

The combined output of the country’s factories declined for the ninth straight month in August, prompting the country’s chief economist to call for faster completion of big-ticket infrastructure projects to arrest declining manufacturing numbers.

The Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries for August 2019 showed that the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) dropped 9.3 percent that month, reversing the 3.1-percent growth posted in 2018.

VoPI—a proxy for factory output—has been dropping since December last year.

The PSA, in a report on Friday, Oct. 4, said output of seven major industries had been declining every year.

Leading was petroleum products, annual decline of 59 percent; furniture and fixtures, 43.4 percent; transport equipment, 19 percent; miscellaneous manufactures, 17.7 percent and electrical machinery, 11.1 percent, according to the PSA report.

Production volume of beverages declined 8.4 percent while textiles, 3.6 percent also in August, it said./TSB