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Philippine exports decline by 24.7 pct on weak global demand

Xinhua, November 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Philippine exports fell by 24.7 percent in September 2015 as sluggish global demand and depressed prices weakened exports of all key commodities, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Tuesday.

This record hits a new low in Philippine exports since September 2011, due to the supply-chain disruption in key Asian countries that caused a sharp decline in demand for electronics.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed that export earnings declined to 4.4 billion U.S.dollars from 5.8 billion dollars recorded in the same period in 2014.

The drop "mirrors a still sluggish external demand due to weak global economic and depressed commodity prices, which continue to strain exports growth," said Arsenio M. Balisacan, Economic Planning Secretary of the Philippines.

Nonetheless, signs of a possible rebound of the country's merchandise exports in the fourth quarter are likely, owing to better prospects in Japan, U.S. and the Eurozone, the minister added.

Manufactured goods, which comprise about 87 percent of the country's total merchandise exports, posted a year-on-year loss of 23.6 percent in September this year. It fell to 3.8 billion U.S. dollars from 5.0 billion dollars in the same period last year.

"This reflects the still weak global manufacturing sector, which can be traced to the sluggish final demand and ongoing inventory adjustments,"he noted.

Year-on-year, export earnings from agro-based products dropped by 29.0 percent, down to 251.8 million dollars from 354.7 million dollars owing to lower receipts from fruits and vegetables, coconut products, sugar products and other agro-products.

Meanwhile, outward shipments of mineral products decreased by 32.6 percent, while petroleum products declined by 83.7 percent to 13.7 million dollars from 83.8 million dollars.

"The government needs to further strengthen its efforts to diversify export markets in order to dissipate the impact of weak demand from a relatively concentrated market,"Balisacan underscored.

"Tapping the opportunities from the export of services such as outsourcing (IT-BPO) can in part compensate for the decline in goods exports,"the government official urged.

Balisacan stressed that maximizing the potential of free trade agreements should be explored together with implementing programs that will address bottlenecks that affect the competitiveness of the export sector.

"We need to explore the country's inclusion in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which can bring enormous benefits to participating countries in terms of trade,"said Balisacan, citing Vietnam's continuous growth in exports and its ability to take advantage of trade opportunities. Endit