Manufacturing output drops to 5-month low

MANUFACTURING OUTPUT fell to a five-month low in July amid uncertainty over US tariff policies and bad weather, analysts said.

- Matthew Miguel L. Castillo

Preliminary results of the Philippine Statistics Authority's (PSA) latest Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries showed that factory output, as measured by the volume of production index (VoPD, shrank by 1.1% year onyear in July.

This was a reversal of the 7% growth a year ago and 1.6% expansion in June.

It was also the lowest in five months since the 1.9% decline in February.

Ona monthly basis, July’s output picked up by 3.4%, a reversal from the 4.3% decline in June. Stripping out seasonality factors, it inched up by 2.6%.

In the seven months to July, manufacturing output growth averaged 0.4%, significantly slower than the 2.7% a year ago.

The PSA attributed the contraction in July factory output to the slowdown in production of food (16.5% in July from 22.4% in June); computer, electronic, and optical products (5% from 7.3%); and transportation equipment (9.3% from 13%).

Ten other divisions saw a slowdown, while nine posted annual increments.

PSA data showed the three largest contributors to the year-on-year decline in the VoPI were the faster contraction seen in the divisions of basic metals (-25.4% from -24.9%), coke and refined petroleum products (-15.7% from -15.2%), and chemicals and chemical products (-22.2% from -14.9%).