Philippine imports increased 28.4% in October to $9.664 billion from $7.556 billion year on year, according to latest data from the National Statistics Office.
This brought imports from January to October to $87.911 billion from $66.897 billion in the same period last year, an improvement of 31.4%.
Accounting for 31.5% of the aggregate import bill, payments for electronic products amounted to $1.541 billion in October, up 11.7% over last year's $1.380 billion.
Imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials posted a growth of 47.3% to $901.52 million from $612.11 million in October 2009, and represented 18.4% of the total.
With a 7.6% share was transport equipment. Imports of the commodity amounted to $370.49 million, an improvement of 91.2% from the same level last year’s $193.74 million.
Japan was the country’s biggest source of imports for October accounting for 12.3% of the total import bill, higher by 20% to $601.20 million from $500.95 million in October 2009.
The US was the second biggest source with a 9.8% share and payments worth $481.47 million, up 10.1% from $437.41 million last year.
The People's Republic of China came third, accounting for 8.9% of the total import bill in October, up 68.4% to $436.66 million from $259.27 million in the same month last year.
