Factory output up 7.5% in November

MANILA, Philippines – The country’s manufacturing sector reported a 7.5 percent increase in production in November last year despite the weak global demand for consumer products.

According to the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI), the volume of production index (VoPI) grew 7.5 percent in November, significantly faster than the 1.7 percent growth in the previous month.

Likewise, the manufacturing sector’s value of production index (VaPI) advanced by one percent, registering the first positive rate since April last year.

“This could also potentially support stronger fourth quarter 2015 growth of the industry,” Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan said in a statement.

Balisacan added that the sector is expected to grow further until December 2015 on the back of robust domestic demand, increased inflow of remittances, stable inflation, and low fuel prices.

For consumer goods, tobacco maintained its robust growth in November 2015, posting a 52.7 and 54.1 percent growth rate in volume and value of production, respectively.

The food subsector continued to decline in both production volume and value due to the drop in production as a result of low demand for tuna products, low supply of agar, and inadequate supply of raw materials for the production of vegetable and animal oils.

For intermediate goods, leather goods posted a double-digit growth of 23.7 and 24.9 percent in volume and value of production.

For capital goods, basic metals grew 25.1 and 11.3 percent, sustaining its robust growth from the previous month.

The transport sector also grew by 9.5 in volume and 8.7 percent in value due to the sustained strong sales in passenger and commercial vehicles.

Meanwhile, the factory sector’s average capacity utilization rate slightly grew to 83.6 percent in November last year from 83.5 percent in 2014, with basic metals posting the highest utilization rate of 88.6 percent.