August exports surprise: 20% growth fastest in 11 months

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) — Merchandise exports in August accelerated by 20.2%, the fastest since September 2012.

Data from the National Statistics released on Thursday, October 10, showed that August exports reached $4.581 billion. 

This was the highest spike achieved year-to-date amid weak global economic recovery. (READ: PH July exports slow down)

This also brought the aggregate January-to-August merchandise exports $35.003 billion, 0.8% slower from the $35.297 billion a year ago.

In a statement, the National Economic and Development Authority  officer-in-charge (OIC) and Deputy Director-General Rolando Tungpalan highlighted the country’s performance. “With this growth, the Philippines was the strongest performer among its East and Southeast Asian neighbors in terms of export growth in August 2013,”.

“We are now reaping the benefits of our efforts to diversify the country’s exports base. This, when combined with strong performance of manufactured goods, will bring our exports industry to full recovery and sustained growth,” Tungpalan noted.

Top exports

Electronics products, the company’s top export, however, was down 0.4% to $1.785 billion in August from $1.791 billion a year ago.

Electronics accounted for 39% of the total exports revenue during the month.

Lacierda highlighted the products that contributed to the improvement of the export performance in August.

“Manufacture goods rose by 8.7% to US 3.7 billion from 3.4 billion a year ago,” he said. “Higher exports of total agro-based and forest products also contributed to the robust export in 2013.”

Export markets

Below were the Philippines’ main export markets in August:

• Japan – 25% share; $1.147 billion total, up 67 %
• USA – 12.6% share; $575.44 million total, up 15.2%
• China – 10.5% share; $479.88 million total, up 26.1 %
• Singapore 8.5% share
• HongKong – 7.6% share; $348.46 million total up 13.5%

– Rappler.com