The manufacturing sector likely grew 5.8 percent in June, on sustained demand for locally-manufactured products, Moody’s Analytics, a division of Moody’s Corp., said in a report over the weekend.
“Philippine industrial production growth likely held at 5.8 percent year-on-year in June. The archipelago’s manufacturers are benefiting from stronger demand at home and abroad,” Moody’s said.
“Domestically, private investment and consumption are expanding rapidly as positive demographics and infrastructure improvements propel the economy towards GDP [gross domestic product] growth around 7 percent,” it said.
Moody’s said external demand for Philippine goods, particularly electronics, was improving “thanks to the synchronized upswing in global economic conditions.”
The manufacturing sector also grew 5.8 percent in May, faster than the 4.3-percent growth in April, driven mainly by higher output of construction- and export-oriented goods.
Export-oriented products includedbasic and fabricated metals, and non-metallic mineral products, as shown in the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Fabricated metals registered a record-high growth of 116.9 percent in May, while basic metals and non-metallic products increased by 29.1 percent and 22.6 percent, respectively.
“These recorded increases led to an overall volume of production index for manufacturing of 5.8 percent, faster than the 4.3 percent growth recorded in the previous month,” the National Economic and Development Authority said.
“This also led to the 7.5 percent three-month moving average growth rate, reflecting a robust performance of the sector,” it said.
Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said that construction products were expected to grow further toward the end of the year, backed by the government’s massive infrastructure development spending.
These include the continuing implementation of major infrastructure projects such as the NLEx-SLEx Connector Road, Cavite-Laguna Expressway and PNR North South Commuter Rail.
“Manufacturing output is expected to sustain its growth toward the end of the second quarter, driven by buoyant domestic demand and optimistic business outlook,” Pernia said.
“Seventy-five flagship projects have been identified by the administration to address our huge infrastructure deficit,” Pernia said.
