MANILA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines' exports increased by 72.1 percent in April, reaching 5.71 billion U.S. dollars from 3.32 billion U.S. dollars in the same month last year, the country's Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) said on Wednesday.
Citing preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority, the DTI said this was the second consecutive month of positive year-on-year export growth, following the 33.3 percent revised growth in March.
"Allowing 100 percent operating capacity even during the (coronavirus lockdown) coupled with the gradual economic recovery of (our) major trading partners from the COVID-19 pandemic (led to the) solid growth," Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said in a statement.
He said the Chinese mainland was the Southeast Asian country's top export market in the review period, receiving 16.7 percent of all exports. Other top markets were Japan (14.3 percent), China's Hong Kong (12.9 percent) and Singapore (5.5 percent).
Lopez said cumulative export earnings from January to April amounted to 23.37 billion U.S. dollars, up by 19 percent from the same period in 2020.
"Our latest export growth rate shows that we are steadily recovering from the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," Lopez said.
Semiconductors remain the top export product, comprising 42.2 percent of all exports, said Lopez. Out of all the export products, ignition wiring sets for vehicles, aircraft, and ships had the highest growth at 1,237.6 percent, followed by metal components at 345.2 percent. Enditem
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