Philippine Export Growth Accelerates to 4-Month High

By Karl Lester M. Yap

Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Philippine export growth accelerated to a four-month high in June as a weaker peso made the country's disk drives and mobile-phone chips cheaper and shipments to China countered faltering demand from the U.S.

Shipments abroad rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier to $4.49 billion, compared with a 2.3 percent gain in May, according to preliminary figures released by the National Statistics Office in Manila today. The median estimate of 7 economists in a Bloomberg survey was for a 4.1 percent increase.

The peso, last year's best performer in the region, fell for a fourth month in June, boosting the foreign-currency earnings of exporters. That may help stave off the effects of weakening demand for Asian goods as global growth slows.

``An exchange rate at a competitive level would help exports recover,'' said Cecilia Tanchoco, an economist at Bank of the Philippine Islands in Manila.

Overseas sales account for about two-fifths of the Philippines' $118 billion economy, which grew at the slowest pace in six quarters in the first three months of the year.

Sales of electronics, which make up two-thirds of the Philippines' total exports, climbed 6.4 percent from a year earlier to $2.63 billion.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors rose 8 percent in June from a year earlier, the fastest pace since January 2007, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association. The emergence of large middle-class populations in China, India, Eastern Europe, and Latin America has countered the effects of slower growth in the U.S., the group said.

Philippine shipments to China rose 8.8 percent in June from a year earlier to $491 million. Exports to Hong Kong advanced 10.5 percent to $436 million.

Sales to the U.S., the Philippines' biggest overseas market, declined 0.1 percent to $703 million in June. Shipments to Japan, the No. 2 destination, gained 2.6 percent to $652 million.

Exports of clothing for fashion houses such as Polo Ralph Lauren Corp. and The Gap Inc. declined 7.6 percent.

To contact the reporter for this story: Karl Lester M. Yap in Manila at kyap5@bloomberg.net.