Factory production down in March – PSA

Factory output declined both in volume and value in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Tuesday.

Based on the preliminary results of the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI), the Volume of Production Index dropped at an annual rate of 6.3 percent in March 2020 from a growth of 4.0 percent in the previous month.

The March decline, however, was slower compared with the faster rate of decrease of 8.8 percent in March 2019.

“Fifteen major industry groups pulled-down the VoPI with the following major industry groups exhibiting at least 25 percent decreases: petroleum products [-34.3 percent], tobacco products [-33.9 percent] and miscellaneous manufactures [-29.0 percent],” the PSA said.