Philippine Exports Rise the Most in at Least 29 Years (Update1)
May 11, 2010 May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Philippine exports rose at the fastest pace in at least 29 years in March as demand for the nation’s electronics goods climbed, spurring economic expansion as the country recovers from last year’s global slump.
Shipments abroad increased 43.7 percent from a year earlier to $4.18 billion after rising a revised 42.5 percent in February, the National Statistics Office said in Manila today. That compares with the median forecast for a 39.5 percent gain in a Bloomberg News survey of 12 economists, and was the biggest gain since Bloomberg data started in January 1981.
Asian exports are rebounding as customers in the U.S. and Europe increase purchases of Philippine-made Texas Instruments Inc. semiconductors and South Korea-produced Hyundai Motor Co. cars. The Philippine government said last week economic growth may accelerate to a range of 3.8 percent to 4.7 percent in 2011 from as little as 2.6 percent this year.
“It’s the whole inventory rebuilding, recycling, which is boosting our exports,” Arthur Michael de Castro, an analyst at Bank of the Philippine Islands in Manila, said before the report. “We’re seeing sustained industrial or manufacturing sector activity.”
Worldwide semiconductor sales rose 58.3 percent in March from a year earlier, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association.
Exports account for about a third of the Philippines’s $167 billion economy. South Korea’s exports rose 31.5 percent in April from a year earlier, and Malaysia’s overseas sales jumped 36.4 percent in March.
- Published at Blooomberg News By Karl Lester M. Yap || Last Updated: May 11, 2010 21:06 EDT
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