Philippine exports plunge to eight-year low

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

According to government figures published on Tuesday, Philippine exports fell by 41% in January to the lowest levels in eight years. The plunge was preceded by a 40.4% year-on-year loss last December.

Philippines' January export receipts equaled US$2.494 billion, the lowest figures since April 2001, when exports were at $2.246 billion. The statistics are down 6.8% month-on-month from last December.

The National Statistics Office said that electronic exports, which comprise over half of the country's exports, dropped 48.4 percent to $1.345 billion, almost an eleven-year low.

The government planning office announced that the export predictions for this year had fallen to 6-8%, down from their original estimate of 1-3%.

"We expect the [export] losses will taper off in February and March. Export growth will still be negative but it will be less than in January," said the president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Sergio Ortiz-Luis, to the AFP news agency. "It looks like exports will be negative for the whole year, even assuming there is a recovery in the second half. It will be difficult to end up with positive growth at this point."

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

Rica D. Delfinado. "January exports plunge 41% to 8-year low" — The Philippine Star, March 11, 2009
"Philippine exports dive 41 pct to 8-year low: govt" — AFP, March 11, 2009

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.