Exports slump 22% to $38.3 billion in 2009

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s exports plunged by 21.9 percent to $38.33 billion in 2009 from $49.078 billion in 2008 as demand for locally-made products declined substantially due to the global financial crisis, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday.

But for December alone, exports saw their first double-digit rise in 22 months, as the recovery from the effects of the global financial crisis gathered pace.

Export receipts for December grew 23.6 percent to $3.30 billion, from a year earlier following a 5.7-percent annual advance the previous month, the government statistics office said.

Shipments actually fell 11 percent compared to a month earlier, but the December growth was driven by a 40.9- percent year-on-year rise in electronics, the country’s main export which accounted for 56.9 percent of the total.

Shipments of electronic products, which accounted for 56.9 percent of total export revenues, jumped 40.9 percent to $1.881 billion during the month. Semiconductor exports, which took the biggest share of electronic products, grew 36.9 percent to $1.295 billion.

‘’This performance is consistent with the Semiconductor Industry Association’s report that the December 2009 worldwide chip sales were 29 percent higher than December 2008 but 1.2 percent lower than November 2009,” Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Augusto B. Santos said yesterday.

Aside from electronics, the other key exports of the Philippines in December were apparel and clothing accessories, coconut oil, ignition wiring sets, woodcrafts and furniture, metal components, and petroleum products.

“The pace of recovery in global demand for Philippine goods remained measured as the December export was 11 percent less than in November 2009,’’ Santos said.

The United States remained the Philippines’ top export destination, buying $627.86 million worth of goods. This was 9.4 percent higher than the $573.98-million recorded in December 2008.

Japan came in second with $507.46 million, followed by the Netherlands ($295.24 million), Singapore ($283.19 million), and Germany ($245.18 million).

Philippine exports started to slow down in September 2008 and had since posted contractions. They recovered only in November last year, with a revised growth of 5.7 percent.

The government is currently looking at seven to nine percent growth in the country’s exports for 2010.