Rapid recovery of exports seen this year

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine exports are seen to recover faster than expected this year as the electronics industry lived up to its projections it will stage a rapid recovery.

Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI) chairman Arthur Young said in an interview with Philexport News and Features that the industry has scaled up its export projection for the whole year to a range between 25 and 30 percent.

The new projection was given after the industry staged a 29.5 percent growth last April over the same month last year.

The new target is calculated to move electronics exports to close, if not equal, the total sales in 2008 but may still be short of the 2007 record. The year 2007 was the industry’s peak year before the global recession sent it on a downward spin.

Other industries that were lagging behind in the recovery in the first quarter of the year like furniture and garments, joined the recovery bandwagon in the month of April.

But the unexpected best performer turned to be coconut oil which staged a 372 percent growth on top of $107.26 million in sales, replacing garments as the country’s second largest export for the month of April.

Electronics and semiconductor products make up over 60 percent of Philippine exports.

Overall, the semi-government Export Development Council (EDC) also scaled up its projection of growth from the 20 percent it made at the beginning of the year to 22 percent after the January to April performance was reported.

EDC executive director Senen Perlada said that on the back of the industry’s high double-digit growth in the first four months of the year, EDC has adjusted up total export growth this year from 20 percent to 22 percent.

Merchandise exports have been projected to grow by 20 percent instead of the earlier target of 16 percent. Services exports, on the other hand, is seen to kick up faster at 30 percent.

It has been projected that if the momentum of recovery is sustained, the industry may take just two years to win back lost ground during the global crisis.