Non-electronics drive April exports to 7.6%

MANILA--The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said that the export of non-electronic products buffered the declining outward shipments of electronics and drove exports growth to 7.6 percent in April this year.

Neda made this statement after the National Statistics Office (NSO) announced that total export receipts increased to US$4.6 billion in April 2012 from US$4.3 billion in the same period a year ago.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said that non-electronic products have been registering a healthy position, and this was again seen in the latest exports figures.

"Except in 2009, non-electronics growth has averaged around 9.7 percent from 2002 to 2011 and has managed to post positive contribution to exports growth even during and following global crises," said Balisacan, who is also Neda director general.

He added that world consumption of consumer durables, which include goods that have high electronics component such as motor vehicles, home appliances and miscellaneous products like mobile phones, computers, etc., are normally low during economic downturns unlike demand for basic non-durable commodities such as food, capital goods, raw materials, and articles of apparel.

"Given the benign response of non-electronic exports to global weakness, programs and projects in the areas of financing, promotions and marketing, customs procedures, technological and industrial upgrading, and integration to local and international markets will be combined with intensified policy support to improve the productivity and competitiveness of the non-electronics industries," Balisacan said.

According to the latest NSO data, electronics exports decreased from US$2.2 billion in April 2011 to US$1.6 in April 2012 due to lower receipts from semiconductors (-29.4 percent), electronic data processing units (-24.5 percent), automotive electronics (-94.6 percent), communication/radar (-26.2 percent), and consumer electronics (-0.4 percent).

"The decline in the country's semiconductor exports reflected the developments in the global chip market in April 2012. According to industry sources, worldwide chip sales decreased by almost three percent year-on-year, from US$24.8 billion in April 2011 to US$24.1 billion in April 2012.

Meanwhile, improved sales in other subsectors, such as telecommunication, control and instrumentation, office equipment and medical/industrial instrumentation, failed to buoy the receipts from electronics exports," Balisacan said.

On the other hand, NSO revealed that exports growth in April 2012 was supported by higher receipts from manufactures (15.7 percent) and forest products (14.2 percent), which more than offset the lower value of outbound shipments of minerals (-45.9 percent), total agro-based products (-17.0 percent), and petroleum products (-6.0 percent).

"Renewed demand for manufactures can be traced to the improving economic activity in major advanced economies and sustained robust growth in most emerging and developing countries," the Cabinet official said.