Wednesday May 25, 2011 02:17:00 EDT
Philippines' manufacturing output increased at a slower pace in March, preliminary results from a monthly survey conducted by the National Statistics Office showed Wednesday.
Manufacturing production increased 11.1 percent year-on-year in March, slower than the upwardly-revised 12.8 percent growth recorded in February. On a monthly basis, manufacturing production rose 5.6 percent in March, after increasing an upwardly-revised 1.5 percent in February. At the same time, net sales in the manufacturing sector increased 12 percent annually in March, slower than February's upwardly revised 14 percent increase. Month-on-month, sales grew 8.2 percent.
In value terms, factory production increased 9.7 percent in March, following February's upwardly-revised 11.6 percent rise. The value of sales rose 10.6 percent during the month, after growing 12.8 percent in the previous month, which was revised up from 10.3 percent.
The average capacity utilization increased to 83.3 percent in March from 83 percent in February, the agency said.