Philippine exports down by 11.4 pct in June

Philippine exports fell by 11.4 percent year-on-year to 4.8 billion U.S. dollars in June, its 15th consecutive month of decline, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), an agency that oversees PSA, attributed the drop to weak demand from major export markets, such as Japan, U.S. and China.

For the first semester of this year, exports plunged by 7.5 percent to 26.832 billion U.S. dollars from 29 billion U.S. dollars during the same period last year.

"We must continue to improve our efforts in ensuring an enabling environment where industries can upgrade and improve their competitiveness," said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia, also director general of NEDA.

He said that an example would be transforming the agriculture sector from traditional farming to a globally competitive agribusiness sector.

"This can be done by effectively linking the agriculture sector to the local and global industry supply chain," Pernia said.

With the slow global economic recovery, he said the country should identify non-traditional markets such as in Europe and within the ASEAN region, to reduce the external shocks from times of weak demand from traditional markets.

"We should also ensure that the programmed spending on infrastructure projects, particularly those related to transportation and logistics, to support the country's growing industries," he added. Endit