The Department of Trade and Industry is set to unveil sharply reduced export targets for 2025—and for the remaining years of the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2023–2028—at a December 4 launch expected to formally reset the country’s export trajectory.
“We need to open new markets. We need to export to the world. We should not limit exports to a few markets,” Trade Secretary Cristina Roque said at the opening of National Exporters Week in Mandaluyong City, framing the move as part of a broader push to diversify trade partners.
The recalibration comes even as merchandise exports continue to deliver stronger-than-expected gains. Shipments have expanded for 10 straight months, marking a solid rebound from the past two years’ slowdown.
From January to October 2025, exports climbed to USD70.43 billion, up from USD61.90 billion in the same period in 2024—a robust 13.80 percent increase.
Services exports, however, have softened. For the first half of 2025, receipts dipped to USD24.43 billion from USD24.65 billion a year earlier, a 0.89 percent contraction that partly explains the need to revisit the PEDP’s original assumptions.
Export Marketing Bureau Director Bianca Sykimte said the revised targets will be released alongside the PEDP accomplishment report. She declined to detail the basis for the downgrade. “When we were drafting the PEDP, we were at a point of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the projections were quite high. Unfortunately, the growth was not sustained,” she explained.
The PEDP currently targets combined goods and services exports of USD163.6 billion in 2025, rising to USD240.5 billion by 2028—figures now expected to be cut.
In 2024, total exports reached USD126.4 billion, below the USD143.4 billion PEDP goal.
Still, Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. said he remains cautiously optimistic, expecting single-digit export growth in 2025.
