The Philippine manufacturing sector sustained its positive performance for the ninth month this year with increases in both volume and value for September 2018.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI) for September 2018, the Volume of Production Index (VoPI) and Value of Production Index (VaPI) rose by 4% and 3.7%, respectively.
The September 2018 results were a turnaround from the 5.7% and 6.2% decline of VoPI and VaPI, respectively, recorded in the same period last year.
The growth in VoPI was due to the positive performance of 11 major industries, with six industry groups registering two-digit increases. These are textiles (44.7%), petroleum products (26.7%), machinery except electrical (20.1%), miscellaneous manufactures (16.5%), transport equipment (16.2%), and non-metallic mineral products (13.3%).
Significant increases in VaPI, meanwhile, were attributed to the eight major industry groups that exhibited two-digit growth, namely, textiles (51.3%), petroleum products (50.3%), miscellaneous manufactures (21.5%), machinery except electrical (18.2%), transport equipment (17.7%), electrical machinery (17.4%), paper and paper products (16.7%), and beverages (13.6%).
“We expect this strong performance of the manufacturing sector this year as we continue to see stable domestic demand, as well as robust investments due to heightened infrastructure projects and consumer spending,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia said earlier in a statement.
“This upward growth trajectory is likely to be sustained. And the whole of government continues to push for measures improving efficiency and innovation in the production sector in order to sustain this robust performance in the second half of the year,” Pernia said.
These measures include encouraging competition in the local logistics sector so as to translate to better services and lower prices for customers; effective internationalization of micro, small, and medium enterprises; and improvement of local government units’ efficiency in providing business-related services.
