The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has insisted that Philippine exports grew by at least 18 per cent last November, and did not go down by four per cent as reported earlier by the National Statistics Office (NSO). “We are looking at the $716 million export receipts reportedly recorded by the Automated Export Documentation System that was not included in the NSO report. If this is true, then our November 2003 exports would have grown (by) 18 per cent,” Trade and Industry Secretary Cesar Purisima said in a statement. This gave rise to a strong possibility that the NSO export report would undergo a review to reflect the true volume of exports for November 2003 before they are officially released this month.
Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri has also raised doubts over the NSO report, and asked for its review and revision saying several reports from the Bureau of Customs and export processing zones were apparently not included.
