Export Recovery Seen to Generate 600,000 Jobs

MANILA – The export sector is expected to sustain its recovery next year on the back of a booming economy, generating as much as 600,000 jobs, the government said Wednesday.

The trade department has set a 3 to 5 percent export growth target for exports next year. This compares to the 0 to 3 percent target this year and the 0.66-percent contraction in 2015.

Export earnings are expected to reach $91 billion to $93 billion next year and breach the $100-billion mark by 2020, according to the Philippine Export Development Plan.

Exports grew 5.1 percent in September, compared to the 15.2-percent contraction in September 2015, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

Monetary authorities said the peso’s weakness against the dollar is expected to boost export earnings as well as remittances from Filipinos overseas. – reports from Warren de Guzman, ABS-CBN News

(Source: ABS-CBN.com)