MANILA, Philippines - The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) has warned that the recent disasters in Japan would affect the country's export performance in the short term.
"There are indications that the softening demand will be compounded in the coming months by shortages of certain electronic components due to disasters in Japan that have started to negatively affect the electronics industry," said NEDA Director-General Cayetano Paderanga, Jr.
Paderanga made this statement after the National Statistics Office (NSO) released the February 2011 export earnings that amounted to US$3.864 billion, or a modest growth of 8.2 percent from the same month last year. This brought total export receipts in the first two months of 2011 to rise by 10.0 percent to US$7.9 billion.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) expects full year exports growth to decelerate this year to 13 percent partly due to base effect and the softening of the demand in some segments of the electronics industry.
Electronic products, which accounted more than half of total exports revenue in February 2011, totaled US$ 2.071 billion, or down by 2.7 percent from a year ago. Export of semiconductors, which comprised more than a third of the total exports share, was also down by 3.8 percent.
"The reduced earnings from semiconductors in February 2011 were partly attributed to the imbalanced supply and demand. Prices are declining, despite the build-up of inventories that still have the capacity to accommodate demand until June 2011," said Paderanga.
The NSO data also showed that Japan was the top destination of Philippine goods in February 2011, with a 17.2 percent share in the total exports. (EHL)
