Factories churn out more output in February – its fastest since 2010

Factory production expanded in February to its fastest pace in almost 8 years, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported this morning.
Preliminary results of the PSA’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI) showed that in February, factory output – as measured by the Volume of Production Index – grew 24.8% year-on-year.
This was higher than the revised 18.5% growth recorded in January and the 9.8% increase a year earlier. The February result was the fastest since the 25.5% posted in August 2010.
Sixteen major sectors contributed to the growth in the volume output led by huge pickups in printing (108.1%), food manufacturing (32.6%), electrical machinery (30.3%), beverages (24.1%), petroleum products (23.4%), miscellaneous manufactures (20.5%), leather products (14.4%), fabricated metal products (12.6%), chemical products (11.1%), basic metals (10.7%) and machinery except electrical (10.4%).
Average capacity utilization, which is the extent by which industry resources are being used in the production of goods, was estimated at 84.2% with eleven of the 20 sectors registering capacity utilization rates of 80% and above. — Christine Joyce S. Castañeda