The country’s manufacturing sector expanded at a faster pace in May this year, with 13 out of 22 industry divisions reporting positive annual growth, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.

Based on the PSA’s Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries, the volume of production index (VoPI) accelerated by 4.9 percent in May from 4.3 percent a month ago.

Notably, the growth in production volume during the month was the fastest since July 2024, at 7.2 percent.

The faster annual growth of the manufacturing volume in May was due to food manufacturing which rose 15.7 percent year-on-year from 11.2 percent in April; transport equipment, 13.5 percent from 7.4 percent; and chemicals, which saw a smaller annual drop of 13.8 percent compared to April’s larger 23.8 percent decline.

Of the 19 remaining industry divisions, 11 posted annual growth during the month, while eight registered annual declines.

Meanwhile, the value of production index (VaPI) for manufacturing increased faster at 4.5 percent from 4.3 percent in April. The PSA noted that the top sectors that boosted the volume were that same sectors that boosted the VaPI in May.

Food production expanded by 16.4 percent in May, up from 11.9 percent in April. Food production accounted for 37.1 percent of the overall increase in the annual growth rate of VaPI for manufacturing. This industry division had the heaviest weight among the 22 divisions in the calculation of VaPI.

Other major contributors to VaPI’s faster growth were the meager year-on-year decline in chemical production at 13 percent, improving from a 23.3-percent drop in April, and the more robust growth in transport equipment at 12.6 percent from eight percent in the previous month.

When it comes to the value of net sales index (VaNSI),

the manufacturing section inched up slightly by 6.3 percent in May, from 6.2 percent in April. Still, this was due to faster sales in food products at 7.6 percent from six percent in April.

Food manufacturing accounted for 21.6 percent of the uptrend in the industry’s net sales during the month.

Lastly, the annual growth in the volume of net sales index (VoNSI) was faster at 6.7 percent in May, from 6.2 percent in April. Food manufacturing sales, which accounted for 20.2 percent of the increase, grew by seven percent in May, from 5.4 percent in the previous month.

“The result was weaker than we expected, in spite of the April print receiving a substantial upgrade,” said Miguel Chanco, chief emerging Asia economist at think tank Pantheon Macroeconomics.

Chano noted that “the re-emerging weakness in private consumption is coming from faltering discretionary spending,” adding that “food sales remain on a decent uptrend but furniture sales have been rolling over steadily since the start of the year.”

“Expect the slowdown in headline year-on-year sales growth to continue in the next few months, at least, with remittances growth—in local currency terms—continuing to slump from its high in late-2024,” Chanco said.