Factory output grew by 5.1 percent in October 2022, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
The PSA’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI) showed the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) in October recorded a faster increase than the annual growth of 4.1 percent in the previous month.
In October 2021, the VoPI expanded at an annual growth rate of 27 percent.
The PSA said out of the 22 industry divisions, 14 reported positive annual growths which was led by manufacture of machinery and equipment except electrical with 81.8 percent annual growth rate.
Eight industry divisions posted annual decreases with manufacture of electrical equipment exhibiting the fastest annual drop of 56.9 percent.
The Value of Production Index (VaPI) continued to register a two-digit year-on-year increase of 12.7 percent in October 2022, faster than the September 2022 annual growth of 12 percent.
In October 2021, the VaPI accelerated at an annual growth rate of 27.8 percent.
The PSA said contributory to the increase of VaPI were the annual growths exhibited by 17 out of the 22 industry divisions.
Among these, manufacture of machinery and equipment except electrical posted the highest annual growth rate of 76.4 percent in October 2022. The remaining five industry divisions posted decreases in their production with manufacture of electrical equipment registering the fastest annual decline of 55.8 percent.
Michael Ricafort, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist, said in a statement yesterday the slower growth in the MISSI manufacturing gauge versus a year ago may have to do with the normalization of the base effects, after double-/triple-digit growth levels seen in earlier months.
“Nonetheless, the modest, single-digit growth in the manufacturing volume production continued to pick up as the economy further reopened towards greater normalcy, with no large lockdowns so far this year and no lockdowns going forward as a priority of the administration,” Ricafort said. – Angela Celis
