First rise in 14 months

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine export growth rose for the first time in 14 months, indicating that demand is slowly recovering after the global downturn.

Data from the National Statistics Office showed that Philippine export revenues grew 5.1% to $3.693 billion in November from last year's $3.513 billion.

The country's export growth slowed to 1.2% in September 2008. Since then, exports have been posting negative growths at a range of 8.3% to 41%.

For the first 11 months of 2009, exports dropped 24.6% to $35.004 billion from last year's $46.403 billion.

Shipments of electronic products, which account for 58.2% of total export revenues, rose 6.9% to $2.148 billion from last year's $2.010 billion. But semiconductor exports, which took the biggest share of electronic products during the month, dropped 5.6% to $1.439 billion.

Aside from electronics, other key exports of the Philippines in November include apparel and clothing accessories, ignition wiring sets, woodcrafts and furniture, cathodes, metal components, coconut oil, tuna, and pineapple products.

The United States remained the Philippines' top export destination for the month, buying $654.17 million worth of goods. The was higher by 7.5% compared to the $608.74 million recorded a year earlier.

Japan came in second with $597.57 million, followed by the Netherlands ($378.43 million), Germany ($367.56 million), Singapore ($274.51 million), Hong Kong ($261.43 million), China ($227.98 million), Korea ($159.74 million), Thailand ($144.74 million), and Malaysia ($101.86 million).

Central bank governor Amando Tetangco has earlier said that exports are likely to fall 20% in 2009. The government has previously projected a 13% to 15% drop in exports for the said year.

For 2010, the government is looking at a 7% to 9% growth in exports.

Meanwhile, SEIPI (Semiconductor and Electronics Industries of the Philippines) is expecting exports by the electronics sector to climb 10% to 15% this year from a likely 20% fall in 2009. -- Karen Flores, abs-cbnNEWS.com, with a report from Reuters