Philippine manufacturing output continues to shrink in September
Source: Xinhua | 2020-11-06
The performance of manufacturing production in the Philippines continued to contract in September amid the prolonged coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Thursday.
The PSA said the year-on-year value of production index (VaPI) and the volume of production index (VoPI) remain at a downward trend, declining 11.9 percent and 8.4 percent in September 2020, respectively.
VaPI in August declined at a faster rate of 13.3 percent, while VoPI registered a drop of 9 percent.
The September figure was the seventh consecutive month that VaPI had negative growth and the fifth straight month that it was declining at a slower rate, the PSA said.
In September 2019, VaPI dropped by 6.5 percent.
The PSA said the increases in the indices of four industry groups, namely basic metals, food manufacturing, chemical products, and miscellaneous manufactures led to the slower downturn in the VaPI.
The PSA said the VoPI for the manufacturing sector in September also contracted at a slower rate of 8.4 percent compared with the 9.0 percent decrease in August.
In September 2019, the year-on-year rate was at -6.5 percent.
The PSA said major contributory to the slower decline in VoPI for the manufacturing sector in September was the two-digit expansions observed in basic metals and food manufacturing with annual increases of 14.4 percent and 10.2 percent, respectively.
The Philippines has been in varying degrees of coronavirus lockdown since mid-March, limiting the movement of workers and the operations of businesses such as factories.
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