MANILA, Philippines - Foregone dollar earnings for the first seven months of this year have hit $10 billion, as most of the country’s major markets continued their slow demand, July export data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) had shown.
In the seven-month period, the biggest loser was the electronics industry, shedding $17 billion with sales of only $11.67 billion against $17.69 billion from January to July last year or a decline of 34.04 percent.
All but three of the country’s 30 major export goods have dived to below zero growth. The most resilient were pineapple, tuna and jewelry which still managed to post one digit growths over the first seven months of the year.
But for the month of July, even tuna got a beating, retreating by 16.3 percent with export revenues of $34.80 billion. Bananas, on the other hand, was the month’s top gainer on $41.56 million export sales which was 25.5 percent higher than its record on the same month last year.
For the whole seven months, however, banana exports went negative at minus 1.83 percent growth.
The July data also dashed hopes that the whole industry is on the road to recovery. Compared to the previous month of June, total dollar earnings in July went down by 24. 8 percent on total revenues of $3.31 billion against $3.40 billion.
All major markets ordered lesser goods during the month in review. Top buyer remained the United States including Alaska and Hawaii but the decline in exports to that country now suffering from a lingering economic recession stayed at 17.5 percent on purchases of $583.75 million.
The retreat in sales to Japan, the country’s second biggest market, was even deeper at 21.3 percent from $550.19 million in revenues, much less than the $698.73 million sales in July of 2008.
Third largest market, the Netherlands, ordered 12.1 percent less from the Philippines in buying $301.15 million worth of goods against $342.58 million in the same month last year.
Hong Kong bound goods fetched in $259.63 million, representing a slide of 9.1 percent below the $429.34 million in July 2008.
Even China, despite it keeping a high growth rate in defiance of the global decline, bought less than half of the goods it bought from the Philippines in July 2008. Exports to China went down to $226.92 million which was much lower than imports from the country worth $500.55 million in the same month in 2008.
The drop in exports to Eastern Asia made up of China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Mongolia, Korea and Taiwan was 37.37 percent while those to members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economic bloc nosedived by 32.7 percent. — Philexport News and Features