As reported by the National Statistics Office (NSO), the total merchandise exports estimated at US$3,689 million in February 2007 went up by 7.0 percent compared to US$3,447 million in February 2006.   

Electronic products, which comprised 63.5 percent of the total exports, remained the country’s top export, exhibiting a 12.3 percent growth compared to 12.1 percent in the same month last year. Other commodities in the list of top ten exports, which accounts for 17.0 percent of the total, include (a) articles of apparel and clothing accessories; (b) cathodes and sections of cathodes of refined copper; (c) ignition wiring set and other wiring sets; (d) woodcrafts and furniture; (e) other products manufactured from materials on consignment basis; (f) metal components; (g) petroleum products; (h) fresh bananas; and (i) coconut oil.

In terms of contribution to the 7.0 percent growth in exports, the biggest share came from electronic products at 7.4 percentage points, followed by cathodes and section of cathodes of refined copper at 0.8 percentage points, and coconut oil at 0.4 percentage points. However, woodcrafts and furniture, articles of apparel and clothing accessories, and petroleum products pulled down the export growth with 0.6, 0.4, and 0.3 percentage points, respectively.

Among the top ten exports, coconut oil posted the highest increment at 106.8 percent compared to the same month last year. Other top gainers were cathodes and sections of cathodes of refined copper at 39.5 percent, ignition wiring set and other wiring sets at 18.5 percent, fresh bananas at 14.3 percent, electronic products at 12.3 percent, and other products manufactured from materials on consignment basis at 6.2 percent. On the other hand, petroleum products declined by 25.4 percent, woodcrafts and furniture by 25.3 percent, metal components by 15.9 percent, and articles of apparel and clothing accessories by 5.9 percent.

The United States of America with 17.7 percent share, Japan with 14.4 percent share, and China with 12.3 percent share were the biggest markets for exports in February 2007.  Compared to 2006 figures on percent share, USA and Japan exhibited a decline of 1.4 and 3.9 percentage points, respectively, while China posted a 3.0 percentage points increment.

Monthly data on merchandise exports are generated from the compilation of foreign trade statistics which is one of the designated statistical activities of the NSO under Executive Order No. 352, Designation of Statistical Activities That Will Generate Critical Data for Decision-Making of the Government and the Private Sector, issued on July 1, 1996.  Per EO, data on exports should be made available 45 days after the reference month.  The NSO released the February 2007 data on exports on April 11, 2007.  It may be noted that the top ten exports listed in the NSO foreign trade statistics are different from the top merchandise exports in the national accounts which are based on the 1988 list of top exports to maintain the national accounts link series over a period of time. For further inquiries, please contact Ms. Rosie B. Sta. Ana, Chief of the Economic Indicators and Indices Division of the NSO, at telefax numbered 716-39-35 and e-mail address r.staana@census.gov.ph.

Link to data source:  http://www.census.gov.ph/data/pressrelease/2007/ex0702tx.html