The Volume of Production Index (VoPI) in the country’s manufacturing sector increased by 7.2 percent year-on-year in February 2023, showing a slower growth compared to the double-digit annual increase of 11.2 percent recorded in the previous month and the 69.8 percent hike recorded in February 2022.
The slower annual growth of the VoPI in February was mainly due to the decrease in the index of manufacture of food products, which slowed down to 6.4 percent from 14 percent in the previous month, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
In addition, the manufacture of computer, electronic and optical products declined by 14.2 percent from -6.9 percent, and the manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products saw a decline of 2.7 percent from a growth of 17.8 percent, becoming the other main drivers of the decline of VoPI for the manufacturing sector.
Meanwhile, the Value of Production Index (VaPI) for the manufacturing sector continued to record a two-digit year-on-year increase of 11.1 percent, although this was slower than the annual growth of 16 percent in January.
