The Development Budget and Coordination Committee has reduced the country's export growth forecast this year to a range of -8 to -6 percent, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said Tuesday.

The revised target was a huge drop from the 1- to 3-percent projected export growth set in November last year.

In a statement, NEDA Director General Ralph Recto said electronic exports are expected to drop by 8 to 10 percent this year due to the declining global demand as well as credit constraints: "Likewise, contributing to falling exports growth are the declining global prices of coconut products and mineral products.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported a 41-percent drop in exports for January at $2.5 billion, which was largely attributed to the sharp reduction in exports of all major commodity groups. The registered growth is a reversal from the 6-percent increase in January 2008 at $4.23 billion.

“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 explained.

Exports of manufactured products fell 39.9 percent in January, owing to the poor performance of garments (-21.5 percent) and electronic products (-48.4 percent). Semiconductors, the largest electronics products segment, posted a 52.7-percent contraction.

The NSO said petroleum products also contributed to the decline in exports at -87.3 percent, as well as forest products (-56.9 percent), mineral products (-43.8 percent), and total agro-based products (-38.5 percent).

Total exports to the United States, the country's top export destination, fell 33.6 percent in January from the previous year due to the continuing recession of the US economy, the NSO said.

Outward shipments in the US took up 18.3 percent of the country's exports for the said month, followed by Japan (15.2 percent), Germany (9.7 percent), the Netherlands (9.1 percent), and Hong Kong (8 percent). These top five markets comprised 60.3 percent of the country's total exports in January 2009, more than half of which is composed mainly of semiconductors, electronic date processing machines, and automotive electronics.

Meanwhile, sugar and products (2,419.3 percent), fruits and vegetables (11.7 percent), and gold (47.2 percent) posted a remarkable performance partly due to the increasing world prices of these commodities. According to the World Bank's Commodity Price Pink Sheet, the selling price of sugar and gold in the world market were at $0.27 a kilogram and $859 a troy ounce in January, respectively.