Factory output grew at a much faster pace in July due to strong production of manufacture of fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Thursday, Sep. 8.

In its Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI), the PSA said the country's volume of production index (VoPI) went up by 2.5 percent in July from 0.7 percent in the previous month.

The index growth, however, slowed compared with 534.4 percent posted in the same period last year.

The expansion in VoPI was brought about by the positive growth rates of 14 industry divisions.

Of these, manufacture of machinery and equipment except electrical was the major contributing factor with 30.3 percent annual growth rate.

On the contrary, eight industry divisions posted annual decreases with manufacture of electrical equipment exhibiting the fastest annual drop of -52.7 percent.

According to the PSA, only 26.2 percent of the manufacturing firms surveyed operated at full capacity in July. Average capacity utilization of the factories stood at 71.3 percent.

About 20.1 percent of the establishments operated at 80 percent to 89 percent capacity and 13.3 percent of the respondents operated below 50 percent.

Meanwhile, the value of production index (VaPI) during the month also increased at a much faster rate as it posted a 10.6 percent jump last July from 8.3 percent in the previous month.

Seventeen major sectors reported positive growth rates in July, led by manufacture of machinery and equipment except electrical at an annual growth rate of 32.1 percent

On the other hand, the remaining five industry divisions recorded decreases with manufacture of electrical equipment registering the fastest annual decline of -51.2 percent.

Volume of net sales year-on-year rose to 14.1 percent, while the rise in value improved to 21.8 percent.