Export value up 20% in Aug

MANILA, Philippines - Merchandise export earnings rose by a fifth in August from a year ago, posting its fastest growth for the year due to the positive performance of seven major commodities, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said.

The NSO said yesterday the country’s exports earnings reached $4.581 billion in August, a 20.2-percent growth from the $3.810 billion recorded in the same month in 2012.

However, for the January to August period, total merchandise exports registered a 0.8 percent decrease to $35.003 billion from the $35.297 billion in the same period last year.

Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said in a telephone interview yesterday that while aggregate exports for the eight-month period are still down, the group is upbeat the country’s exports performance would improve in the coming months.

“We are far off from our 10-percent target (for the year) but I don’t think we will end the year with negative growth. I am hopeful that it will be positive,” he said.

“The positive growth in export earnings was mainly brought by the increase of seven major commodities out of the top 10 commodities for the month and these are: petroleum products, other minerals products, bananas (fresh), chemicals, woodcrafts and furniture, other manufactures and ignition wiring set and other wiring set used in vehicles, aircrafts and ships,” the statistics agency said.

National Economic and Development Authority officer-in-charge and deputy director general Rolando Tungpalan said in a statement yesterday the latest result shows the benefits in the country’s move to diversify its exports.

“We are now reaping the benefits of our efforts to diversify the country’s exports base as seen in the increasing revenues from agro-based, forest, mineral and petroleum products.  This, when combined with strong performance of manufactured goods, will bring our exports industry to full recovery and sustained growth,” he said.