PHILIPPINE imports soared 30.3% in January, the highest growth in the last seven years.
Latest data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed imports reached $4.261 billion from $3.270 billion in January 2009.
Month-on-month, January imports are up 9.4% compared to the previous month’s $3.896 billion.
Electronic products continued to be the country’s top imports, accounting for 31.4% of the aggregate import bill and amounting to $1.337 billion, 2.2% more than last year’s $1.308 billion.
Imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials ranked second with a 19.4% share of the total and a growth of 96.2% to $827.92 million over the $421.93 million in the same period last year.
In third place were imports of transport equipment valued at $380.22 million for a share of 8.9% to the total.
Accounting for 13.4% of the total import bill, the US was once more the country’s biggest source of imports for January with shipments of $570.72 million from the same month last year’s $578.82 million, or a dip of 1.4%.
Singapore, the second biggest source of imports with a 12.7% share, recorded payments worth $540.01 million, up 60.6% from $336.23 million in January 2009.
Japan came in third, accounting for 11.5% of the total import bill with growth of 38.5% to $491.79 million from $354.99 million in 2009.
