Manufacturing grew faster in both volume and value in February, as the economic reopening boosted consumer and business confidence, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show.
The PSA said the volume of production index expanded 84.3 percent in February from a year ago, faster than the 17.1-percent increase in January. The VoPI in February 2021 dropped 43.9 percent.
It said the surge in VoPI was brought about by the positive growth rates of 19 industry divisions, led by the manufacture of coke and refined petroleum products with a 748.9-percent increase.
The remaining three industry divisions recorded decreases, led by manufacture of electrical equipment with 28.8-percent annual decline.
The value of production index also jumped 92.4 percent in February, picking up from the 21.8-percent expansion in January. In contrast, the VaPI fell 47.0 percent in February 2021.
Meanwhile, the value of net sales index maintained an upward trend, registering an annual increment of 20.7 percent in February and faster than the 17.6-percent increase in the previous month. In February 2021, VaNSI dropped 17.5 percent.
The volume of net sales also registered a year-on-year increase of 15.7 percent in February, from 13.0 percent in January. In February 2021, VoNSI went down by 12.6 percent.
Based on responding establishments, the average capacity utilization rate for the manufacturing sector improved to 69.0 percent in February from 68.3 percent in January.
Nearly all the industry divisions reported capacity utilization rates of more than 50 percent, except for manufacture of wood, bamboo, cane, rattan articles and related products (48.7 percent).
Among these, the top three industry divisions were manufacture of furniture (84.1 percent), manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products (80.5 percent) and manufacture of electrical equipment (76.8 percent).
The proportion of establishments that operated at full capacity (90 percent to 100 percent) represented 20 percent of the total number of responding establishments. Meanwhile, 36.8 percent operated at 70 to 89 percent capacity, while 43.2 percent operated below 70 percent capacity.
The Department of Trade and Industry said the greater mobility and effective implementation of health and safety protocols allowed the Philippine manufacturing sector to post one of the fastest growths in Southeast Asia.
“The surge of the Omicron variant dampened our recovery expectations at the start of the year but with the lesser and lesser cases in February and March, all signs point to a full recovery in full swing starting March and in the coming months,” Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said.
The manufacturing output, through the purchasing managers’ index of the IHS Markit Philippines, climbed to a three-year high at 53.2 in March, outperforming its ASEAN peers as the country’s mobility was the highest.
“With this, we expect a robust first-quarter gross domestic product performance and for manufacturing PMI to again signal expansion in April. Still on the brighter side, manufacturing output for the whole of 2021 capped a solid year marked by nine straight months of growth culminating in December,” Lopez said.