THE country’s factory output fell in March versus the previous year’s level as the enhanced community quarantine meant to control the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) put most economic activities to a halt.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s (PSA) Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries released yesterday, the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) dropped at an annual rate of 6.3 percent in March 2020.
This is a reversal of the four percent growth in the previous month.
However, the contraction was slower than the 8.8 percent decline in March 2019.
The PSA said 15 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 percent).
The Value of Production Index (VaPI) likewise dropped at an annual rate of 11.3 percent in March 2020.
This decline was faster than the reported decreases in the previous month at one percent and in March 2019 at 4.4 percent.
The PSA said the reduction in VaPI was largely due to the decreases in the indices of 17 major industry groups, the first three, which had at least 30 percent annual declines, were also petroleum products (-40.5 percent), tobacco products (-30.9 percent) and miscellaneous manufactures (-30.2 percent).
It was earlier reported that the Philippines’ manufacturing sector posted another record low in April, according to HIS Markit’s manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI), following the lockdown of a large part of the economy to ease the spread of the COVID-19.
According to a report released Monday, the HIS Markit Philippines Manufacturing PMI fell further to 31.6 in April, from 39.7 in March, to indicate another steep decline in operating conditions across the manufacturing sector.
