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FACTORY output recovered for the second consecutive
month in January as manufacturers increased production of beverages,
tobacco and leather products, the National Statistics Office (NSO)
said.
In its Monthly Integrated Survey
of Selected Industries, the NSO said the country’s volume of
production index (VoPI) inched up by 0.5 percent in January this
year from the 2-percent growth in the same period last year.
In December, VoPI inched up 0.1
percent, a revision of the earlier contraction the NSO reported.
“The increase was mainly due to
the expansion in factory output of the 12 major sectors, with the
two-digit increases registered by the following: leather products,
miscellaneous manufactures, tobacco products, wood and wood
products, fabricated metal products, beverages, and machinery
excluding electrical,” the NSO said.
On a monthly basis, manufacturing
output, however, fell by 11.1 percent in January due to the
significant decreases observed in food manufacturing, beverages and
petroleum products.
The NSO said only 10.4 percent of
the 100 manufacturing firms surveyed had operated at full capacity.
Average capacity utilization of these factories stood at 80.1
percent.
More than half or 58 percent of
the establishments operated at 70- percent to 89-percent capacity
while 32.9 percent of the establishments operated below 70-percent
capacity.
Production value as measured by
the value of production index however continued its downtrend,
posting a decline of 1.4 percent in January from 1.8 percent in
the same period last year.
The NSO attributed the drop to
the sluggish performance observed in the following major sectors:
furniture and fixtures, food manufacturing, and transport equipment.
Also, production value dropped by
11 percent on a month-on-month basis in January because of a
contraction in eight major sectors, including food manufacturing,
petroleum products, and beverages.
--Darwin G. Amojelar
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