The country’s factory output posted a double-digit year-on-year increase of 10.6 percent in January 2023, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
According to the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries, the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) for January is faster than the annual growth rate of 4.2 percent in the previous month. In January 2022, the VoPI recorded a faster annual increment of 10.9 percent.
“The upturn of VoPI in January 2023 than its annual growth in December 2022 was mainly brought about by the annual increases in the indices of the same top three industry divisions that contributed to the growth of Value of Production Index (VaPI) in January 2023,” the PSA said.
These are the manufacture of food products, 17.3 percent from 3.3 percent in the past month; manufacture of transport equipment, 24.3 percent from -0.2 percent in the previous month; and manufacture of electrical equipment, 53.6 percent from -54.8 percent in December 2022.
Meanwhile, the VaPI for manufacturing posted a double-digit year-on-year increment of 15.4 percent in January, faster than the December 2022 annual growth of 9.5 percent. In January 2022, the VaPI registered a slightly slower annual growth rate of 15.1 percent.
“The expansion in the annual growth of the VaPI in January 2023 was mainly attributed to the higher annual increase in the index of manufacture of food products industry division with 25.1 percent annual increment in January 2023 from 11.2 percent in the previous month,” the PSA said.
“The manufacture of food products contributed 29 percent to the upward trend of the VaPI of the manufacturing sector in January 2023. Out of the 22 industry divisions for the manufacturing sector, manufacture of food products had the highest weight in the computation of VaPI,” it added.
The PSA said based on responding establishments, the average capacity utilization rate for the manufacturing sector in January was reported at 72.6 percent from 71.5 percent in the previous month.
The proportion of establishments that operated at full capacity (90 to 100 percent) was 21.1 percent of the total number of responding establishments, while 39.6 percent operated at 70 to 89 percent capacity and 39.3 percent operated below 70 percent capacity.
