Singapore (VNA) – ThePhilippines has gained from the trade war between the US and China, accordingto a review of export data of the country in the first seven months of 2019 byMaybank Kim Eng analysts.

Amid global trade tensions, thePhilippines’ shipments to the US and China together rose by 9.2 percentyear-on-year in the January-July period.

The Philippines supplied 3.9 percent moregoods to the US in trade categories that have been hit by tariffs on Chineseproducts, largely manufacturing-related items.

Meanwhile, China bought 1.3 percent moregoods from the Philippines for items subject to tariffs on US imports, despitean overall decline in Chinese imports from the Philippines.

Electronics exports from the Philippines toboth markets rose amid trade tensions. Shipments of automatic data-processingmachines parts to the US nearly doubled against the same period last year,while similar shipments to China were up by 69.7 percent.

The Philippines is also supplying moretariffed consumer goods like plastic furniture, the export of which to the USgrew by 74.8 percent - and farm products, such as bananas and pineapples, toChina.

However, the Maybank Kim Eng economists saidthe Philippines should not be too optimistic, noting that purchasing managers’sentiment dimmed in August on the back of softer new orders.

They warned that Philippine manufacturerswere less optimistic about future output as only 57 percent expect higheroutput next 12 months, the second lowest print on record.

In a separate report, a Citibank analystsaid the Southeast Asian country’s year-on-year export growth of only 0.1 percentin the first seven months points to a relatively more benign impact from theUS-China trade tension against Asian neighbours./.