Philippines' manufacturing barely hums in March

MANILA, May 7 (Xinhua) -- The performance of manufacturing production in the Philippines barely hummed in March, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday.

Based on the preliminary results of the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries, the PSA said the year-on-year value of production index (VaPI) rose by 0.4 percent while the volume of production index (VoPI) declined by 0.2 percent in March.

The agency said the average growth rate of VaPI for manufacturing from January to March this year was 0.9 percent.

The PSA mainly attributed the uptrend in the annual growth rate of VaPI for manufacturing in March to the faster yearly increase in the manufacture of food products at 19.2 percent from an annual increment of 13.9 percent in the previous month.

The manufacture of food products contributed 35.4 percent to the uptrend in the VaPI of the manufacturing section in March, the PSA said.

Other primary contributors to the annual increase of VaPI for manufacturing in March were the annual increments recorded in the manufacture of transport equipment, and the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products.

In March, the VoPI for the manufacturing section registered a slower year-on-year decline of 0.2 percent from its annual decrement of 1.5 percent in February. This brings the average growth rate of VoPI for manufacturing from January to March to 0.2 percent.

The uptrend in the year-on-year growth rate of VoPI for manufacturing in March was primarily driven by the same top three industry divisions that contributed to the upturn in the annual growth rate of VaPI for manufacturing during the period, the PSA said. Enditem