The Philippine manufacturing sector demonstrated a significant turnaround in April 2025, with the Value of Production Index (VaPI) registering an annual increment of 4.3 percent. This positive growth follows an annual decline of 1.4 percent in March 2025, according to data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). In April 2024, the VaPI for manufacturing had recorded a higher annual increase of 6.5 percent.
The primary driver behind this resurgence was the robust performance of the manufacture of basic metals, which saw an impressive annual increase of 17.3 percent in April 2025. This marks a dramatic recovery from an annual drop of 43.8 percent in the preceding month. The manufacture of basic metals alone contributed a substantial 94.1 percent to the overall uptrend in the VaPI for the manufacturing sector during the month. Notably, this industry division holds the fifth highest weight in the computation of the manufacturing VaPI.
Out of the 22 industry divisions within the manufacturing sector, 12 exhibited annual increments in their VaPI during April 2025, while nine experienced annual declines. The most significant year-on-year decline was observed in the manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, which dropped by 26.2 percent.
The top three industry divisions contributing to the overall year-on-year growth of VaPI for manufacturing in April 2025 were:
- Manufacture of food products
- Manufacture of basic metals
- Manufacture of transport equipment
Despite its positive contribution to overall growth, the manufacture of food products experienced a deceleration in its annual growth rate of VaPI, slowing to 12.1 percent in April 2025 from an annual increase of 17.6 percent in March 2025. In April 2024, the VaPI for the manufacture of food products had posted an annual increment of 7.7 percent. This slowdown was primarily attributed to downtrends in the annual growth rates of VaPI for seven out of eight industry groups within the food products sector, led by a slower annual increase in the manufacture of dairy products (1.1 percent in April 2025 from 13.7 percent in the previous month).
Conversely, the VaPI for the manufacture of vegetable and animal oils and fats registered a faster annual growth rate of 46.4 percent in April 2025, up from 43.3 percent in the previous month, indicating a strong performance in this specific sub-sector.
