Philippine merchandise trade reached US$16.43 billion in October 2018, an increase of 14% from $14.41 billion in the same month last year, propelled by strong imports as well as improved export performance, according to data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Imports continued to grow with $10.32 billion posted in October 2018, or 21.4% higher than the $8.50 billion earned in October 2017. PSA said the increase was due to the positive growth of the top 10 major import commodities, which included cereals and cereal preparations (52.3%); mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials (45.4%); other food and live animals (33.6%); telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery (26.7%); miscellaneous manufactured articles (25.4%); plastics in primary and non-primary forms (24.9%); industrial machinery and equipment (21.5%); transport equipment (18.4%); electronic products (14.8%); and iron and steel (7.8%).
Exports up 3.3%
Meanwhile, after five straight months of decline, Philippine exports finally recorded an improvement of 3.3% to $6.11 billion in October 2018 from $5.91 billion in October 2017. The positive performance was due to the increase in export sales of the seven of the top 10 commodities, namely, copper concentrates (167,014.3%); machinery and transport equipment (94.1%); banana (fresh) (30.9%); other manufactured goods (24.3%); miscellaneous manufactured articles, (23.8%); metal components (17.6%); and electronic products (0.6%).
The country’s trade in goods, however, showed a bigger imbalance in October 2018, logging a $4.21 billion deficit from a $2.59 billion deficit in October 2017.
Electronic products accounted for the highest total imports in October 2018 with a share of 26.4% valued at $2.72 billion. Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials came second with import value reaching $1.23 billion, followed by transport equipment with $1.19 billion, or an 11.6% share.
Electronic products also continued to be the top export with total earnings of $3.25 billion, which accounted for a share of 53.2% to the total exports revenue in October 2018. Other manufactured goods ranked second with $451.35 million, or 7.4% of the total export receipts, followed by machinery and transport equipment with $376.73 million, or a share of 6.2%.
China remained the country’s top source of imports, followed by South Korea and Japan, while the United States was the top export destination, followed by Japan and China.
