MANILA, Nov. 10 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' exports recovered in September, posting 5.1 percent increase year-on-year to 5.211 billion U.S. dollars after 17 months of decline, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Thursday.
Export sales in September last year amounted to 4.960 billion U.S. dollars.
PSA said the increase was attributed to eight major commodities out of the top 10 export commodities for the month. These include other mineral products, electronic equipment and parts, metal components, chemicals, articles of apparel and clothing accessories, ignition wiring set and other wiring sets used in vehicles, aircrafts and ships, electronic products, and other manufactures.
Total merchandise exports from January to September, however, registered a 6.2 percent decrease to 41.691 billion U.S. dollars from 44.460 billion U.S. dollars in the same period of 2015, PSA said.
Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto M. Pernia expressed optimism that export performance will continue to improve.
"Exports of manufactured products may continue to firm-up in the near term, possibly riding on the growth of the global industry sector, " said Pernia, also director general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) which has jurisdiction over PSA.
Most Asian countries also posted positive gains in exports for September, pointing to a recovery in global trade, he noted.
"Recent developments in China and Japan, which are the Philippine's largest trading partners in Asia, provide good prospects for merchandise trade. The steady growth of China's economy is a welcome development, and the Japanese government also appears to be on track in reviving its economy," he added.
Pernia also said that aside from lifting the ban on bananas, China has also announced its intention to buy more high-value commercial crops from the Philippines, like mangoes and coconut, as well as high-end fishery products like lapu-lapu, crabs and tuna.
China ranked the third with 633.36 million U.S. dollars or 12.2 percent share of the total exports in September, next to Japan and the United States, according to PSA.
