EXPORTS dropped by about quarter in September, the sharpest decline since September 2011, the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said Tuesday.
Citing a report of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), NEDA Director General Arsenio Balisacan said the Philippine exports reached $4.4 billion in September, 24.7 percent lower from $5.8 billion recorded in the same period last year.
"This mirrors a still sluggish external demand due to weak global economic activity and depressed commodity prices, which continue to strain exports growth," said Balisacan, also the Economic Planning Secretary.
The PSA cited that eight of the top 10 major export commodities for the month declined. These include chemicals (-85.5 percent); other mineral products (-72.8 percent); other manufactures (-66.1 percent); metal components (-55.8 percent); articles of apparel and clothing accessories (-45.5 percent); coconut oil (-38.4 percent); ignition wiring set and other wiring sets used in vehicles, aircrafts and ships (-2.7 percent); and electronic products (-2.1 percent).
For the first nine-month period, exports plunged by 6.9 percent to $43.746 billion from $46.976 billion in 2014.
Despite exports' drop, Balisacan expressed belief that this will recover in the last quarter of this year.
"Signs of a possible rebound of the country's merchandise exports in the fourth quarter are likely, owing to better prospects in Japan, US and the Eurozone," he said.
He also stressed the need to further strengthen the Philippine efforts to diversify export markets in order to dissipate the impact of weak demand from a relatively concentrated market.
"Tapping the opportunities from the export of services such as outsourcing (IT-BPO) can in part compensate for the decline in goods exports," he said.
In this regard, the Cabinet official said that maximizing the potential of free trade agreements should be explored together with implementing programs that will address bottlenecks that affect the competitiveness of the export sector.
"We need to explore the country's inclusion in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which can bring enormous benefits to participating countries in terms of trade," said Balisacan, attributing Vietnam's continuous growth in exports its ability to take advantage of trade opportunities. (SDR/Sunnex)