Export revenues of the Philippines increased by 6.9 percent in May to5.5 billion USD, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

In a report on July 10, the PSA said mineralproducts led the growth with a 107 percent surge from the same periodlast year, followed by coconut oil with a 45 percent rise.

Japan continued to be the biggest market of the Philippines’ goods,accounting for 20.4 percent of the month’s revenues or 1.12 billion USD,up 6.1 percent year on year.

In a separateannouncement, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) isoptimistic about the outlook for the remaining months of the year.

However, the NEDA said the government is concerned about severalproblems that can affect exports in the coming months, particularly theadverse impact of a possibly prolonged drought on agricultural products.

Meanwhile, the central bank of the Philippines(BSP) reported that foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country inApril reached 597 million USD, a more than four-fold increase from oneyear ago, raising the total FDI for the first four months of this yearto 2.44 billion USD, up 9.1 percent year on year.

Major foreign investors in the Philippines are the US, Japan, Singapore, the UK and Germany.-VNA