Europe, Asia recovery to boost export growth

An export industry official is optimistic of growth in the second half of the year as economies in major and emerging markets including Europe, China, and Japan showed signs of recovery.

Philexport Cebu executive director Fred Escalona said the sector sees promise in the recent declaration of the German and Dutch governments that their economy is past the recession stage and is expected to recover soon.

Escalona also cited the positive developments in US, China and Japan.

“The job markets in the US also showed some improvement. We think that the third and fourth quarter of this year will be better,” said Escalona after the Department of Trade and Industry’s Bureau of Export Trade Promotion (DTI-BETP) reported a slowdown in the sector in the first half of the year.

Escalona added that the new emerging markets like China and Japan are also recovering which should help fuel growth in exports.

“China is slowly coming back as well as Japan despite the setback of deflation in their economy. Other emerging markets in the neighborhood must also be tapped and maximized,” said Escalona, who expects a positive growth rate in the second half of the year.

“It could be a flat growth but we are certain it will be on a positive growth rate,” he said.

According to the latest DTI-BETP report, the industry slowed down with a 4.39 decrease in revenues for the first half of the year.

From January to June this year, total export revenues was only $25.5 billion which is 4.39 percent lower than the total revenues in the same period last year or $26.8 billion.

Losers

Electronics, shipbuilding, garments and textile were the sectors with lower revenues as of June.

Revenues from electronics registered the highest decline at 18.59 percent with only $10.08 billion from January to June compared to last year’s $12.4 billion.

Shipbuilding followed with 16.98 percent decline. Revenues from this sector was only $2.25 billion as of June while garments and textile only had $872 million in revenues for the first half compared to $1.01 billion last year.

Escalona said that these are mostly affected by the slowdown in major markets which includes the US and Europe.

“The finished products of these export components like the electronics are mostly highend products like gadgets and when you have a market that is trying to save money with it’s people still not buying gadgets, naturally demand for these decreases,” he said.

Winners

Wearables like fashion accessories, bags, shoes and jewelry, however, registered the highest growth with $82.54 million in total revenues, a 57.37 percent increase from last year.

Marine and aquaculture food products registered the second highest growth at 49.13 percent followed by mineral products with 48.44 percent growth with total revenues at $478.70 million and $1.6 billion, respectively.

Other food products like processed foods, beverages, fresh and coconut products all registered growth as well as motor vehicle parts, furniture, gift ware and home décor.