Manila Bulletin 

The country’s merchandise exports reached $4.36 billion in January 2015, a marginal drop of 0.5 percent from last year’s $4.38 billion despite the 34-percent growth in export of mineral products and 12.9-percent growth in export of agro-based products.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said export of minerals and agro-based products registered strong growth in January 2015, but weaker demand in manufactures and lower sales from petroleum pulled down total exports.

“The decline is negligible as compared to most trade-oriented economies in selected East Asian countries that posted negative outturns in merchandise exports during the period. This is also in view of weaker demand conditions and fragile manufacturing sectors in some of our major trading partners, Japan, Korea, and Singapore,” said Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio M. Balisacan.

Japan remained as the country’s top export market for the period, with 20.3 percent share in the total exports, amounting to $882.6 million, albeit lower by 23.2 percent year-on-year.

The United States of America came in second with 15.9 percent share, amounting to $693.9.million. This is followed by the People’s Republic of China with 10.2 percent or $45.4 million worth of exports.

Among major commodity groups, higher shipments of copper metal, copper concentrates, and iron ore agglomerates pushed mineral products to grow to $201.0 million in January 2015 from $150.0 million in the same month last year.

Likewise, export earnings from agro-based products grew to $313.9 million in January 2015 from $278.2 million in January 2014, due to increased outward shipments of other agro-based products, sugar, and coconut products.

Meanwhile, gains from exports of manufactured goods declined by 1.6 percent from $3.8 billion in January 2014 to $3.7 billion in the same period last year. This is due to lower outbound sales of other manufactured goods, wood manufactures, electronic equipment and parts, and chemicals.

Despite the slowdown, exports of electronic products continued to be strong with a 14.6 percent year-on-year increase in January 2015. This is largely backed by the 16.0 percent increase in outward shipments of semiconductors, which accounted for almost 69.0 percent of the country’s total electronic exports.

Similarly, export receipts from petroleum products remain affected by the continued decline in global crude oil prices.