Philippine exports to fall 20% in 2009: industry leader

"It was originally looking like it would be minus 13 percent. Now, we are looking at the figure of minus 20 percent because of the slow recovery and the problems with foreign exchange," said Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation.

The global crisis caused a huge drop in electronics shipments, which make up about half of the country's exports.

Then, as electronics began showing signs of recovery, the US currency started falling, hurting exporters who had paid for raw materials at higher rates, according to Ortiz-Luis.

"The exchange rate is really hurting us now. We were already recovering and then this exchange rate thing happened," he told a news conference.

Government figures show exports in the eight months to August fell 30.3 percent from a year earlier to 24 billion dollars.

Exports in the month of August alone fell 21 percent year-on-year to 3.47 billion dollars.

The local currency traded at 46.375 to the dollar on Friday compared with 47.69 a year ago.

Aside from the electronics industry, the hardest-hit sectors were auto parts and non-traditional agricultural products such as vegetables, said Ortiz-Luis.

However he said the export industry was largely spared damage from the effects of the two killer storms, Ketsana and Parma, which hit the country in recent weeks, leaving at least 756 dead and causing billions of dollars in damage to agriculture and infrastructure.

Exports could still show positive growth in the month of December alone, he added.

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