Exports dropped 3.9 percent in January from a year ago, amid sluggish global demand for the country’s forestry and mineral products, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Thursday.
Preliminary data from the PSA showed the country’s outward shipment of goods declined to $4.2 billion in January from $4.4 billion in the same month last year. It was also the lowest monthly exports in three years.
The National Economic and Development Authority said the drop in Philippine exports reflected the weak global demand.
“The year 2016 is expected to be a challenging one for the export sector as the global economy faces sluggish economic recovery and uneven growth. We see global trade growth remaining at a low level as the world copes with soft demand and lower commodity prices,” said Economic Planning Secretary and Neda director-general Emmanuel Esguerra.
Neda said most major East and Southeast Asian trade-oriented economies registered negative export growth in January 2016, with Singapore posting the steepest decline.
Data showed Philippine export of manufactured goods dropped 2.2 percent to $3.7 billion in January.
“The fall in exports of manufactured products mirrors the general weakness of the global manufacturing sector. However, worth noting is the 5-percent increase in the exports of electronic products that registered its eighth consecutive month of positive growth in January,” he said.
Exports of agro-based products dipped 7.6 percent to $289.1 million, dragged down by lower revenues from coconut and fish products. Sales of forest products also dropped 46 percent to $2.66 million.
“We attribute this to the continued tightness in supply due to persistent dry weather. Also, lower export revenues for fish products can be partly traced to the lower supply of fish in Region XII,” said Esguerra.
Outbound sales of mineral products plunged 27.8 percent to $145.3 million, while exports value of petroleum products went down by 17.8 percent to $10 million on persistent low oil price environment.
Bank of the Philippine Islands market research and strategy officer Nicholas Antonio Mapa said the drop was disappointing, given the exports bill came from a low base of negative growth of 0.02 percent in January last year.
“The export print was disappointing given that we were coming from a low base. Further worrisome is the fact that 50 percent of the export basket [electronics] grew by a decent clip [5 percent] and yet exports still dropped on the back of very poor sales for its other products,” Mapa said in an e-mail.
“With global demand still seen to be lackadaisical at best, we wont be able to count on our trade sector for much, with growth and foreign exchange seen to be derived from overseas filipino remittances and business processing outsource receipts,” he said.
Esguerra said despite the recent improvements, market and product concentration remained as challenges in increasing Philippine trade, and that trading with other Asean economies is still limited despite recently growing regional integration.
“The government and private sector should take advantage of the opportunities offered by economic groupings, trade agreements and the structural transformation of other economies. We should engage more actively in information gathering and dissemination, market intelligence, and capacity building of our exporters,” said Esguerra.
