MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) - Growth of the country's merchandise exports hit a 3-month low in November 2012, according to data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Thursday, January 10.

The country's export earnings climbed 5.5% during the month to $3.55 billion from $3.37 billion in November 2011. But this growth was slower than the revised 6.1% annual growth posted in October 2012, and the slowest since August of the same year, when exports contracted by 9%.

The November figure brought earnings in the first 11 months of 2012 to $48.03 billion, a 7% growth from $44.9 billion in the same period the year before.

Shipments of electronics, which accounted for the biggest share of 48.8% of total export revenues, rose 13.3% to $1.734 billion in November 2012 from 2011. However, compared to the $1.9 billion worth of shipments in October, electronics fell 8.8%.

Japan was the Philippines' biggest market for the month, accounting for 20.8% of the export receipt. Shipments to this country, which were mainly semiconductors and woodcraft products, went up 2.5% to $740.21 million.

The United States came next, with $458.37 million or 12.9% of total export revenues, down 8.6% year on year. The US bought mostly electronics and petroleum products from the Philippines.

The other top export markets were Hong Kong ($373.81 million), China ($371.66 million) and Singapore ($291 million). - Rappler.com, with a report from Cai Ordinario