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EDC set to scale down 10% export growth target for 2011 |
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The two-digit export growth target set by the Export Development Council (EDC) when the new export plan was completed last January may prove too ambitious.
The EDC board, the private-public sector overseer of export development, is set to meet either in the first or second week of October to review the ten percent growth target industry leaders had set for themselves for the whole year.
The board will look at the actual performance of the sector so far, international economic trends and local developments that could have slowed down growth performance to 3.31 percent from January to July compared to the same period last year.
Growth of the sector for the whole of last year was a hefty 26 percent resulting in a quick recovery from a two-year slump as a result of the global recession of 2008-2009.
International development agencies including the Asian Development Bank and the United Nations Center for Economic and Social Development had recently trimmed down their projections of Philippine export growth this year to a few points over five percent.
Until recently, the EDC has stuck to its original target but as actual performance of the sector trickled in, a steady retreat in sales of the biggest industry group, electronics, beginning in the second quarter of the year, had not shown any signs of recovery.
As of last count, other major exports led by food, woodcraft and furniture, mineral products and textile made valiant stands and continued to post substantial growth to avert a drastic reversal of last year's recovery.
Their combined growth performance proved adequate to cover the shortfall in the sales of high-tech manufactures including electronics and motor vehicle parts and carried the day for a 3.31 growth from $28.2 billion in the first seven months of last year to $29.14 billion this year.
Revenues from electronics exports of $14.9 billion for the first seven months of this year fell short by 12.58 percent compared to earnings of $17 billion in the same period last year. Electronics products make up more than half of total Philippine exports.
The downward trajectory for the electronics sector was seen to further spill over the months of August and September as indicated by drastic cuts in the importation of raw materials for the month of July. Official statistics on electronics part imports for the month of July indicated a 28.6 percent dive compared to similar imports July of last year.
The import slowdown in electronics raw materials imports was seen as a barometer of the industry's performance for the two succeeding months of August and September. Anemic demand for high-tech products in the matured economies of Europe and United States was seen as the biggest negative factor in the performance of the country's number one segment of the country's export industry.
Export leaders are crossing their fingers a recovery may be staged in the last quarter of the year when holiday shopping in the Christian world may bolster demand for Philippine goods. -- Abe P. Belena, PHILEXPORT News and Features
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