UN body lauds country’s export performance

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The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) yesterday praised the country’s trade performance after the Global Trade Update placed the country at a high of 0.51 in the fourth quarter of last year.

Export performance is a composite indicator which includes growth rates, performance against peers, and competitiveness in major and dynamic markets.

A greater score implies higher export performance.

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The UNCTAD report also pegged Philippine export volatility at 0.11. Export volatility tracks export performance across the last six months to identify volatility patterns. A greater score implies higher export vulnerability.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, at the Laging Handa public briefing yesterday, said exports of almost all countries not just of the Philippines have become vulnerable due to the pandemic.

“The recent export performance of the country is encouraging because despite the continuing lockdown, the export industry was allowed to operate 100 percent…and because of that our exports grew 31 percent, much higher than 2020 and even higher than 2019.

We believe in the strong pick up of exports like electronics which account for 60 percent of exports. The Philippine electronics sector is part of the global value chain and is still growing .. for 2021 the projection is 7 percent growth and the IT-BPM is looking at 5 percent growth. These sectors are big dollar earners and are resilient in the face of the pandemic,” Lopez added.

He said marketing initiatives continue to make sure the Philippines participates in the global value chain.

World trade recovery from the COVID-19 crisis hit a record high in the first quarter of 2021, increasing by 10 percent year-over-year and 4 percent quarter-over-quarter.

The value of global trade in goods and services will reach $6.6 trillion in the second quarter of this year, UNCTAD forecasts.

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