MANILA, April 17 (PNA) -– The petroleum value production index of the country has improved at -30.8 percent for February than January’s plunge of -35.4 percent, according to the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA).
According to NEDA’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI) for February 2015, “Ten major sectors showed significant decreases in VaPI as follows: furniture and fixtures (-51.9 percent), petroleum products (-30.8 percent), footwear and wearing apparel (-19.6 percent), rubber and plastic products (-16.3 percent), and chemical products (-15.9 percent)”.
The NEDA said that the volume index for petroleum products fell further to – 5.4 percent, compared to January’s -4.2 percent.
NEDA also found that value of net sales for petroleum declined by -25.7 percent, but was still an improvement from January’s -29.9 percent.
”Five major sectors that largely contributed to the reduction in VaNSI were: petroleum products (-25.7 percent), printing (-26.0 percent), footwear and wearing apparel (-23.2 percent), miscellaneous manufactures (-11.2 percent), and wood and wood products (-10.3 percent),” NEDA said.
The improvement of net sales may likely be due to the boost of oil prices, which started on Feb. 1, where West Texas Intermediate (WTI) barrel prices jumped to USD 51.55 from Jan 30’s USD 50.07.
On Feb. 18, WTI rates plunged yet again, the lowest price for the month falling to USD 50.39 per barrel.
WTI oil prices per barrel further closed at USD 52.14 on Feb. 27.
Meanwhile, the overall value production index of the country had decreased to 160 percent for this February, than year-on-year’s 163.3 percent.
With slight improvements, the volume production index of the country had improved by 4.4 percent, settling at 111.8 percent compared to 2014’s 107.1 percent.
”Volume of Production Index (VoPI), however, grew at a slower rate of 4.4 percent in February 2015 compared with 6.0 percent growth during the same period of last year,” NEDA said.
NEDA noted the volume production index fared better due to growth from the main manufacturing subsectors, such as consumer intermediate and capital goods.
It was mainly driven up by the industries of leather, tobacco, printing, beverages and basic metals.
”The increment was mainly due to the improved performance in production output observed in 12 major sectors, with two-digit increases reported by the following: leather products (86.8 percent), tobacco products (55.2 percent), printing (51.4 percent), basic metals (38.8 percent), beverages (38.6 percent), textiles (20.3 percent), non-metallic mineral products (17.5 percent), wood and wood products (16.2 percent), and paper and paper products (15.1 percent),” NEDA said in its MISSI. (PNA)