The manufacturing output significantly slowed down in October, after several consecutive months of triple digit growth, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
According to the latest results of the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries released yesterday, the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) posted a growth rate of 24.7 percent in October 2021.
This is much slower than the 123.1 percent increase registered in the previous month. In October 2020, the VoPI dropped at an annual rate of 25.4 percent.
The PSA said the increase in VoPI was brought about by the positive growth rates of 14 industry divisions.
Of these, manufacture of fabricated metal products was the major contributing factor with 176.6 percent growth. On the contrary, the remaining eight industry divisions recorded decreases which was led by manufacture of tobacco products with a 58.6 percent decline.
Meanwhile, the Value of Production Index (VaPI) for manufacturing continued to increase but also at a slower rate of 24.8 percent in October 2021 compared with its three-digit annual rate of 122.5 percent in the previous month.
In contrast, the VaPI in October 2020 fell by 28.9 percent.
The PSA said the growth in VaPI for October 2021 was contributed by the increases in 14 of the 22 industry divisions.
Among these, the top contributor was manufacture of fabricated metal products except machinery and equipment with 176.4 percent growth rate.
On the other hand, the remaining eight industry divisions recorded decreases with manufacture of tobacco products registering the fastest annual decline of 58.2 percent.
“Based on responding establishments, the average capacity utilization rate for the manufacturing sector in October 2021 was slightly higher at 67 percent, from 66.6 percent in the previous month,” the PSA said.
The proportion of establishments that operated at full capacity was 20.5 percent of the total number of responding establishments, while 37.4 percent operated at 70 to 89 percent capacity and 42.1 percent operated below 70 percent capacity.
