THE Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) noted that the manufacturing sector is slowly growing as the output for December climbed to a three-month high.

According to the data from the data from the PSA, the volume of production index (VoPI) climbed by 2.0% last December.

It is said to be the highest for over three months since the 9.8% that was tallied in  September.

This is also in comparison to the 1.8% in October, but was lower than the downward-revised 4.5% recorded in December 2022.

“The expansion in the annual growth of the VoPI in December 2023 was mainly brought about by the slower annual decline in the manufacture of food products,” the PSA said, as the division saw a 1.4% decline versus the 4.9% drop the previous month.

“The manufacture of food products contributed 34.5% to the uptrend of VoPI for the manufacturing section in December 2023,” it added.

Likewise the PSA said that the slower decline in the manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats, prepared animal feeds, and manufacture of dairy products.

Meanwhile, a total of nine industry divisions saw an expansion in December — the manufacture of basic pharmaceutical products by 38.2%; coke and refined petroleum products by 38.1%; electrical equipment by 30.8%; basic metals by 20.8%; transport equipment by 16.4%; textiles by 10.0%; furniture by 3.3%; paper by 2.8%, and reproduction of recorded media by 1.3%.