THE country’s manufacturing output posted its highest growth in seven months on the back of higher food production, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Based on the Production Index and Net Sales Index data for April 2024, the country’s Volume of Production Index (VoPI) grew 6.7 percent during the period, the highest since the 9.5-percent growth in September 2023.
The PSA said this was largely due to the 6.8-percent growth in food manufacturing, which was the highest since the 9.9-percent growth in January 2023.
“The upward trend in the year-on-year growth rate of VoPI in April 2024 was primarily driven by the annual increase in the manufacture of food products at 6.8 percent during the month from an annual decrease of 13.2 percent in March 2024,” the PSA said.
The PSA said the VoPI in April 2024 rebounded from the 5.8-percent contraction in March 2024. However, it was lower than the 8 percent posted in April 2023.
Given this, PSA said the average growth rate of VoPI was at 0.5 percent from January to April 2024.
The PSA data showed that three food items posted double-digit production growth in April 2024.
These were the manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats at 28.4 percent; processing and preserving of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks, 19.2 percent; and the manufacture of dairy products, 10.7 percent.
“The uptrend in the year-on-year growth rate of VoPI for manufacture of food products in April 2024 was driven by the uptrend in all the eight industry groups,” PSA said.
“This was led by the annual increment in the manufacture of other food products industry group at 7 percent during the month from its annual drop of 13.3 percent in the previous month,” it added.
Meanwhile, PSA said the average capacity utilization rate for the manufacturing sector was at 75.2 percent in April 2024.
This was slower than the 75.3 percent in March 2024 but faster than the average capacity utilization rate of 72.5 percent posted in April 2023.
PSA said all industry divisions reported capacity utilization rates of more than 60 percent during the month.
The top three industry divisions in terms of reported capacity utilization rate were manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products at 82.1 percent; manufacture of furniture, 81.9 percent; and manufacture of textiles, 80.1 percent.
The PSA also said the proportion of establishments that operated at full capacity or 90 percent to 100 percent was 28.8 percent of the total number of responding establishments.
Meanwhile, the data also said 42.3 percent operated at 70 to 89 percent capacity, and 28.9 percent operated below 70 percent capacity.
The Production Index and Net Sales Index used to be the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries.
It continues to monitor the production, net sales, inventories, and capacity utilization of selected manufacturing establishments to provide flash indicators on the performance of the manufacturing sector.
Image credits: BERNARD TESTA
