PH export growth seen to exceed 2014 target – DTI

Rappler.com

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

PH export growth seen to exceed 2014 target – DTI
Philippine export revenues are also expected to breach the $100-billion mark in 2015

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine export growth is expected to hit 10% in 2014,  higher than the 8% government target, a Department of Trade and Industry official said.

Trade Undersecretary Ponciano Manalo Jr also said Philippine export revenues are seen to breach the $100-billion mark in 2015, attributed to the rebound of merchandise outward shipments that surpassed China’s performance in September.

“This year’s target is 8% but we are doing 9.9%, so I am confident we will be exceeding that if we extrapolate the last 3 months of the year,” Manalo said.

Total exports increased to $46.6 billion in September, with a growth rate of 9.9% from export revenues of $42.4 billion in the same period in 2013.

Merchandise exports – semiconductors and electronic data processing – grew by 15.7% in September, beating China’s 15.3%.

According to Manalo, this could make the economy grow over 10% this year, faster than what is projected under the Philippine Export Development Plan (PDEP).

“The port congestion and all the challenges that happened, they had a negative effect on overall exports and imports, but we still have a very strong economy,” Manalo said.

While Manalo said that exports – both merchandise and services – will cross the $100 billion mark in 2015, he declined to given any specific target for 2016.

The PDEP had set an export target of $120 billion in 2016, but Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo had downscaled this to $100 billion in September.

The country’s total exports is expected to grow at 9% in 2015, and 10% in 2016, based on the final draft of the PDEP submitted to President Benigno Aquino III.

Electronics growth ‘on track’

Dan Lachica, president of the Semiconductor Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc (SEIPI), for his part, said a 6% growth is very possible for the electronics exports this year despite the port congestion and infrastructure concerns.

“We are still on track to grow between 5% and 8%,” Lachica said.

Non-electronics exports have also been growing at a faster pace of 12% but electronics remains the ‘wild card’ since it accounts for 40% of exports, Manalo said.

Total exports is expected to continue its positive gains for the rest of 2014, according to National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) deputy director-general Rolando Tungpalan.

Tungpalan said the Japanese and US markets will likely boost Philippine exports given the recent optimism building up in the Japanese manufacturing sector and the broad-based expansion in industrial production in the US.

Japan and the US are the country’s biggest export markets, accounting for a combined 43.2% of the total revenue from merchandise exports in September. – Rappler.com

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!