PHILIPPINE imports increased almost 18% in December to $3.89 billion from $3.3 billion in the same month last year, latest data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed.
Compared to November, December imports also grew 7.3% from $3.626 billion.
For the entire 2009, however, imports declined 24.2% to $43.004 billion from $56.746 billion in 2008.
Electronic products continued to account for the bulk of the country’s import bill for December, accounting for 31.6% of the aggregate. Payments for electronic products amounted to $1.231 billion in December, up 8.5% from $1.134 billion in the same month last year.
Imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials were the country’s second top import accounting for 19.4% of the total in December at $755.96 million, 14.6% higher than the $659.55 million posted in December of last year.
Representing 5.7% of the total imports, metalliferous ores and metal scrap amounted to $223.83 million, making it the country’s third top import for December. The December figure is 359.8% more than $48.68 million recorded in December 2008, the highest positive growth from among the top ten import commodities for December 2009.
Japan was the country’s biggest source of imports for December 2009 with a 12% share and payments worth $465.34 million or 18.1% higher than the $394.00 million in December 2008.
The US was the second top source of imports with a 10.6% share of the total import bill. This amounted to $411.26 million, 16.9% lower than the $494.68 million posted last year.
The People’s Republic of China came in third, accounting for 9.6% of the total import bill, up 16.3% to $371.56 million from $319.48 million.
