The Philippines' exports declined by 13 percent year-on-year to 4.673 billion U.S. dollars in July due to a decrease in demand for the country's products from traditional markets, the government said on Friday.

Exports in July last year amounted to 5.371 billion U.S. dollars.

National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) Director General Ernesto Pernia, citing the report of the Philippine Statistics Authority, said exports to Japan fell by 14.4 percent to 909.56 million U.S. dollars in July from a year ago level.

Same with the United States, from 811.19 million U.S. dollars, down by 16.6 percent to 777.30 million U.S. dollars, and China, from 557 million U.S. dollars to 520.93 million U.S. dollars.

"We must continue to upgrade and improve our industries to ensure their competitiveness and resiliency to shocks," said Pernia, who is also the socioeconomic planning secretary.

He said the Philippines must continue to expand our presence in non-traditional markets to reduce its dependency on traditional market.

Of the top 10 export commodities for July, eight of them dropped, PSA said.

These include machinery and transport equipment (-36.8 percent), woodcrafts and furniture (-24.2 percent) and mineral products (-18.9 percent) among others.

Total exports for January to July dropped by 8.3 percent to 31.505 billion U.S. dollars from 34.372 billion U.S. dollars in 2015.

Source : XINHUA