Philippine export growth accelerated to a four-month high in June as a weaker peso made the country’s disk drives and mobile-phone chips cheaper and shipments to China countered weakening demand from the U.S. Shipments abroad rose 8.3 percent from a year earlier to $4.49 billion, compared with a 2.3 percent gain in May, according to preliminary figures released by the National Statistics Office in Manila today.
The peso, last year’s best performer in the region, fell for a fourth month in June, boosting the foreign-currency earnings of exporters.

Overseas sales account for about two-fifths of the Philippines’ $118 billion economy, which grew at the slowest pace in six quarters in the first three months of the year. Sales of electronics, which make up two-thirds of the Philippines’ total exports, climbed 6.4 percent from a year earlier to $2.63 billion.

Philippine shipments to China rose 8.8 percent in June from a year earlier to $491 million. Exports to Hong Kong advanced 10.5 percent to $436 million.

Sales to the U.S., the Philippines’ biggest overseas market, declined 0.1 percent to $703 million in June. Shipments to Japan, the No. 2 destination, gained 2.6 percent to $652 million. Exports of clothing for fashion houses such as Polo Ralph Lauren and The Gap declined 7.6 percent.

Remittances from Philippine citizens working abroad also amounted to 13% of GDP in 2006 according to World Bank estimates.

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