Manufacturing sector seen growing further

The National Economic and Development Authority expects the manufacturing sector to sustain its double-digit growth pace next year.

Neda Director General Arsenio Balisacan said the robust growth in manufacturing output was likely to continue next year due to a conducive environment and favorable business sentiment.

“Manufacturing is seen to continue its momentum of rapid growth that has been witnessed over the last couple of semesters,” Balisacan said Monday in a phone interview.

The positive outlook for the manufacturing sector for 2014 is anchored partly on expectations that economic conditions in industrialized countries will improve next year, thereby boosting global demand for merchandise goods and exports of emerging markets like the Philippines.

Philippine exports are seen rising by 6 percent in 2014, based on latest official government projections.

The favorable forecast for the manufacturing sector next year is also supported by expectations that domestic demand will remain robust.

Household consumption is seen to remain strong amid increasing remittances, and investments also are seen to rise following the investment grades that the country secured this year.

The National Statistics Office earlier reported that the volume of manufacturing production grew by 25.3 percent in October from a year ago. It was the fastest pace of expansion in about three years.

This brought the average growth in the first 10 months of the year to 12.39 percent, faster than the 7.13 percent recorded in the same period last year.

The major growth drivers in manufacturing output were chemical products, furniture and fixtures, leather goods, tobacco products, basic metals, non-electrical machinery, and rubber and plastic products.

The spike in manufacturing output this year was seen as a highly favorable development given the country’s dire need to achieve “inclusive” economic growth.

Economists said the country needed to fully develop its manufacturing sector if it wanted to achieve a substantial drop in poverty incidence.

This is because manufacturing has the ability to employ less educated people and those from the low-income segment. Michelle V. Remo