By Leslie Venzon
Philippine exports are expected to recover in the remaining months of the year as major overseas markets are picking up, according to the country’s chief economic planner.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan expressed optimism about the sector’s rebound after export sales grew for the second consecutive month in July on higher demand for electronics products.
“With relatively good numbers coming from other countries –the United States is picking up, Europe apparently has bottomed out, I think the prospects are good,†he said in a media interview on Tuesday.
“(But) whether it (recovery) is going to be enough to offset the negative growth in the first half of the year is something else. We hope that it is big enough but that might still require us to take a second look at that (exports) forecast,†he added.
Balisacan noted that even with the declining share of electronics revenues to total exports revenues, the Philippines has already diversified its exports products.
“What we are coming out are more varied sources of exports like agriculture processed exports, furniture, gifts and chemicals. Those are the ones growing quite respectably,†he said.
Balisacan, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General, also hopes that more competitive industries will come out as the country is working to improve its business environment.
“This especially if we can continue our momentum in building the infrastructure that can make our industries more competitive. If we can address that backlogs in our logistics and improve our regulatory (processes), the cost of doing business in this country will continue to decline,†he further said.
Balisacan believes that maintaining the momentum will result in surging business confidence in the country.
“That will mean exports will become more diversified because more industries that can compete globally will sprout,†he added.
Economists of First Metro Investments Corp. and University of Asia and the Pacific (FMIC-UA&P) also projected that the exports sector would stage a comeback in second half of 2013 on the economic recovery of the US, Japan and the Eurozone.
Government data indicated that total export earnings rose 2.3 percent to $ 4.84 billion in July 2013 from $ 4.73 billion during the same period last year.
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