The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is bullish about the sustained growth of manufacturing as the Philippines outperformed its Asean peers in March.
DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez attributed this to greater mobility and effective implementation of health and safety protocols with lesser and lesser new coronavirus disease 2019 cases (COVID-19).
Manufacturing output, as measured by the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of the IHS Markit Philippines, climbed to a three-year high at 53.2 in March, snapping four months of the index above 50.
Lopez said this will continue to rebound this year.
“The surge of the Omicron variant dampened our recovery expectations at the start of the year but with the lesser and lesser COVID-19 cases in February and March, all signs point to a full recovery in full swing starting March and in the coming months,” Lopez said.
“With this, we expect a robust first-quarter gross domestic product performance and for manufacturing PMI to again signal expansion in April,” Lopez said.
The DTI also pointed to the nine straight months of growth in the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) ending with a 17.9 percent year-on-year growth in December 2021, a turnaround year-on-year of the 14.8 percent decline recorded in December 2020.
The Philippine Statistics Authority’s monthly survey of selected industries showed 11 industries that grew in December and were paced by the manufacture of wood, bamboo, cane, rattan articles, and related products which attained a 122.6 percent growth year-on-year.
Other gainers include the manufacture of machinery and equipment as well as electrical as both grew by 50 percent. Other industries recorded double-digit growth such as coke and refined petroleum products (48 percent), computer, electronic and optical products (27 percent), non-metallic mineral products (37 percent), food products (32 percent), and fabricated metal products (40 percent).
About a fourth of factories were at the full-capacity operation.
Growth in the Value of Production Index (VaPI) posted an increase of 18.6 percent in December from 27.2 percent in November. For the full year, VaPI increased by 47 percent, a turnaround from the 43 percent contraction in 2020.
“The nine-month run expansion of manufacturing output played a key role in pushing our economic growth to 5.6 percent for 2021, above our target of 5 to 5.5 percent. By capping its run until the end of the year ushered a strong 7.7 percent GDP growth in the last quarter,” said Ceferino Rodolfo, DTI undersecretary.
