PHL factory output drops 1.2% in Feb. – NSO

(Updated 1:45 p.m.) Philippine manufacturing output contracted in February, reflecting a slowdown in tobacco, furniture and fixture production, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported Thursday. 
 
NSO data showed Philippine manufacturing, as measured by the volume of production index, posted a slower annual growth of 1.2 percent.
 
The latest figures compare with a revised 5 percent in January and with the 5.3 percent posted a year earlier.
 
A 130.6 percent decline in furniture and fixtures production and a 102.6 percent drop in tobacco products mainly prompted the slow down, NSO data showed.
 
However, higher growth in  machinery, publishing and printing, fabricated metal products, textiles, wood products, paper products and leather products contributed to the positive results under the production index.

The slower growth in manufacturing output is quite expected following high gross domestic product last year and the impact of power rate adjustments and of petroleum prices, Security Bank Corp. economist Patrick Ella told GMA News Online.

Philippine output in the fourth quarter of 2013 grew by 6.5 percent, bringing the full-year GDP to 7.2 percent.

Last February, oil companies raise pump prices of petroleum products three times.

Though electricity bills were lower that same month, the Supreme Court on February 18 extended for another 60 days a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the P4.15 per kilowatt hour increase in electricity charges of Manila Electric Company.


Ella said, however, the slowdown is temporary. "This is seen as a low for now. Numbers should improve to +8 to +12 percent towards the end of the year," he said. – VS, GMA News