Exports to fall short of goal

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The Philippines hopes to grow by 5 percent its exports of goods and services this year from $98 billion in 2022, according to Ceferino Rodolfo, undersecretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).

That would be around $103 billion, $24 billion short of the $127-billion target set under the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP).

Rodolfo said while this year’s growth projection is slower than the target set by the Development Budget Coordinating Committee (DBCC), the Philippines continues to perform better than its neighboring countries in exports.

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Rodolfo added services will continue to drive exports this year.

The DBCC has set the exports target growth at 1 percent for goods and 6 percent for services.

Bianca Sykimte, director of the Export Marketing Bureau,  said it may be difficult to attain the $127 billion exports target set for 2023 under the PEDP due to the geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, inflation and less favorable recovery of China.

Sykimte said exports of goods fell 6.6 percent in the first eight months this year but August numbers were up 4.2 percent year-on-year.

“We  are the only country among the Asian economies we are tracking that grew in August,” Sykimte said, adding Japan, Thailand Hong Kong, Vietnam, Taiwan, Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia  all declined in terms of exports.

Year-to-date, Sykimte said, the Philippines is in the middle of the pack with the lowest decline compared to  Malaysia which was down 7.8 percent; Vietnam, 9.6 percent; Indonesia, 11.8 percent; Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, by double digit rates.

The only countries that performed better than the Philippines are Japan which grew 2.1 percent;  China which fell 5.1 percent and Thailand, 5.4 percent.

“These numbers are very telling. Vietnam and Indonesia recorded bigger  declines. Our numbers are better comparatively even with the countries which others always refer to as performing better (than the Philippines). It is always good to check the numbers,” Rodolfo said.

Year-to-date exports of  electronics, which accounts for the biggest share, were down 4 percent.

According to Sykimte, exports of services as of the first half rose 22 percent primarily driven by travel services or tourism which jumped from $800 million to $4 billion.

She said other service exports like information technology-business process management, telecommunication, computer and information services and other businesses went up 429 percent.

She noted a big decline was registered in manufacturing services including assembly and test packaging,   down 23 percent.

 

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