Manufacturing output grew 24.8% in February

The country’s manufacturing output grew by almost a fourth in February amid sustained economic expansion, the government reported Thursday.

The state planning agency National Economic and Development Authority, however, expressed concern about the potential impact of rising inflation on the manufacturing sector.

In its latest Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (Missi), the Philippine Statistics Authority said the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) jumped 24.8 percent last February, faster than the 9.8-percent growth posted in the same month last year.

The VoPI measures the output of the manufacturing sector.

Improvement

The strong VoPI growth “was mainly influenced by the increments noted in 16 major sectors, with 11 major sectors that registered two-digit increases, as follows: printing (up 108.1 percent), food manufacturing (up 32.6 percent), electrical machinery (up 30.3 percent), beverages (up 24.1 percent), petroleum products (up 23.4 percent), miscellaneous manufactures (up 20.5 percent), leather products (up 14.4 percent), fabricated metal products (up 12.6 percent), chemical products (up 11.1 percent), basic metals (up 10.7 percent) and machinery except electrical (up 10.4 percent).”

For Neda, the climb in VoPI that month “signals a continued improvement from its slowdown since the second quarter of 2017.”

“The increasing working-age population, rising productivity, improvement in business environment, and aggressive infrastructure development will also help spur growth in the sector,” Neda Undersecretary and officer-in-charge Rosemarie G. Edillon said in a statement.

Outlook

“The industries’ outlook for both the current and succeeding quarters remains bullish with the expectation of sustained robust demand, improvement in production capacity, new product lines, and enhanced marketing strategies,” Edillon said.

“However, risks to growth remain. The government must remain cautious of increasing inflation which may lead to higher cost of production for manufacturing firms. Strategies are needed to be pursued to sustain the upward growth trajectory of the manufacturing sector,” Edillon added.

Also on Thursday, the PSA reported that the headline inflation rate rose 4.3 percent year-on-year in March, exceeding the government’s 2-4 percent target range for 2018.