OUTPUT of the domestic manufacturing industry accelerated by 12.8 percent in April of this year, the Monthly Integrated Survey of Selected Industries (MISSI) of the Philippines Statistics Authority-National Statistics Office (PSA-NSO) reported Tuesday. The 12.8-percent volume of production index (VoPi) in April 2014 is higher compared to April 2013’s VoPi of 9.0 percent. Manufacturing output growth in the fourth month of this year was led by petroleum products with strong growth of 128.7 percent. Other sectors contributing to production output growth in April were printing, increasing by 96.8 percent; machinery except electrical growing by 90.7 percent; tobacco products accelerating by 78.2 percent; fabricated metal products expanding by 43.1 percent; beverages with an increment of 30.7 percent; and furniture and fixtures which went up by 12.6 percent. Likewise, value of production index (VaPi) manifested a growth of 12.9 percent in April of this year from same period of last year which increased only by 1.5 percent. “This is due to the strong performance of petroleum products which bounced back and posted a three-digit growth of 159.9 percent,” the PSA explained. Moreover, average capacity utilization of manufacturing facilities in April 2014 also increased to 83.4 percent with 11 out of 20 major industries registered capacity utilization rates of more than 80 percent. These industries include: petroleum products, basic metals, non-metallic mineral products, machinery except electrical, food manufacturing, electrical machinery, chemical products, paper and paper products, rubber and plastic products, wood and wood products, and publishing and printing. PNA