PH export momentum seen losing steam

Despite a strong export performance in the first nine months of 2025, Singapore-based Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd. (OCBC) expects sales of Philippine-made goods overseas to weaken moving forward.

- BY BEN ARNOLD DE VERA

"Looking ahead, we expect the strong momentum of the export sector to lose steam in the quarters ahead due to softer global demand," OCBC said in a Nov. 3 report.

The Singaporean bank cited that Philippine export growth eased to 12.8 percent year-on-year at end-September from 16.2 percent in the second quarter.

"Higher agriculture (29.4-percent year-on-year [growth] versus 19.7 percent in August), and manufactured (15.9-percent [growth] versus 2.3 percent) goods exports supported September exports while mineral products exports eased to 8.9-percent year-on-year [growth] from 25 percent in August," it noted.

While the United States (US) remained as the top destination of Philippine products, OCBC said export growth to the US "[remains] volatile."