MANILA - Philippine exports continued to suffer a double-digit year-on-year drop in August due to weak sales of electronic products, but the decline was slower than the previous month's, National Statistics Office (NSO) data showed.

Total export bill for the month fell 21% to $3.47 billion year-on-year, but this was better than the 25.4% contraction recorded in July.

Also, compared to July's export earnings of $3.31 billion, earnings in August were higher by 4.9%.

For the first 8 months of 2009, the country's merchandise exports fell 30.3% to $24 billion.

Shipments of electronic products, which accounted for 59.3% of total export revenues in August alone, amounted to $2.06 billion. This was 18.7% lower from a year earlier, the NSO said.

Revenue from apparel and clothing accessories was down 20.3% for the month to $137.58 million, it added.

The United States remained the country's top export destination, buying $628.02 million worth of goods. The figure, however, was 3.9% lower from a year earlier.

Japan came in second with 15.9% of market share worth $553.35 million, but the figure was down 21.8% from the same month last year, the NSO said.

Earier, industry players expressed optimism that exports of electronics and semiconductors would rise in the third quarter from the previous quarter on growing demand.

"Initially, we thought it was a lot of inventory rebuilding and restocking, but I think that we are past that, I think there is really demand," Arthur Young, chairman of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. (SEIPI), said, adding orders were coming mainly from netbook and laptop computer makers.

SEIPI maintained its forecast of a 15% to 20% fall in electronics exports this year.

The government, meanwhile, was mulling to lower its full-year export growth forecast, taking into account weaker-than-anticipated performance of the country's trading partners. It previously projected a 13% to 15% drop in export earnings for 2009.