The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said today that the Development Budget and Coordination Committee (DBCC) has reduced its exports growth assumptions to -8.0 to -6.0 percent for 2009, lower than the 1.0 to 3.0 percent set in November last year.

“Electronic exports are expected to drop by 8.0 to 10.0 percent from their levels in 2008 due to declining global demand and credit constraints. Likewise, contributing to falling exports growth are the declining global prices of coconut products and mineral products,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ralph G. Recto said.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported today that exports continued to drop for the fourth month as receipts reached US$2.5 billion in January 2009, falling by 41.0 percent compared to the same month in 2008. The registered growth is a reversal from the 6.0 percent increase in January 2008. The year-on-year decline was attributed to the sharp reduction in exports of all major commodity groups.

Exports of manufactured products fell by 39.9 percent in January 2009. Contributing to the decline in manufacturing include: garments (-21.6%) and electronic products (-48.4%). The bulk of the decline in exports of electronic products may be traced to the poor performance of semiconductors (-52.7%), the largest electronics product segment.

“However, this trend was not distinct to the country as worldwide sales declined by 28.6 percent in January 2009. The Asia-Pacific region alone posted a 30.7 percent year-on-year decline in sales,” Recto, who is also NEDA Director-General explained. The majority of the country’s electronics exports for the month of January went to Germany, the Netherlands, the United States, Japan, and Hong Kong.

Also contributing to the decline in total exports receipts were petroleum products (-87.3%), forest products (-56.9%), mineral products (-43.8%), and total agro-based products (-38.5%). Looking at specific commodities, sugar and products (2,419.3%), fruits and vegetables (11.7%), and gold (47.2%) posted a remarkable performance partly due to increasing world prices of these commodities. The selling price of sugar and gold in the world market were US$0.2726 a kilogram and US$859 a troy ounce in January, respectively, according the World Bank’s Commodity Price Pink Sheet.

The United States remained as the top destination of outward shipments in January 2009 with an 18.3 percent share. However, the total exports to the US dropped by 33.6 percent compared to January 2008, driven by the decline in the demand for electronic products due to the continuing recession of the US economy. Japan followed in second place with a share of 15.2 percent. The other top export markets for the month were Germany (9.7%), the Netherlands (9.1%), and Hong Kong (8.0%). On the other hand, the aggregated outbound shipments to China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan comprised 19.3 percent of the total exports in January.

The top five markets comprised 60.3 percent of the total exports in January 2009, more than half of which is composed mainly of semiconductors, electronic data processing machines, and automotive electronics.