By Aubrey Rose A. Inosante, Reporter
THE PHILIPPINES’ trade-in-goods deficit ballooned to $5.09 billion in September, the most important trade gap in 20 months, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Wednesday.
Preliminary data from the PSA showed the trade-in-goods balance — the difference between exports and imports — stood at a $5.09-billion deficit in September, up by 43.4% from $3.55-billion gap a yr ago.
Month on month, the trade gap rose by 15.81% from $4.39 billion in August.
The country’s balance of trade in goods has been within the red for 112 straight months (over nine years) because the $64.95-million surplus recorded in May 2015.
In September, exports declined 7.6% to $6.26 billion from $6.77 billion a yr ago. This was the most important drop since June.
For the first nine months, exports rose by 1.1% to $55.67 billion.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) expects 5% growth in exports this yr.
Alternatively, the worth of imports went up by an annual 9.9% to $11.34 billion in September from $10.32 billion in the identical period last yr.
Within the nine-month period, imports inched up by 0.6% to $95.07 billion. That is below the DBCC’s goal of two% growth in imports for the yr.
ELECTRONICS EXPORTS
Amongst the foremost forms of goods, exports of manufactured goods fell by 11.1% yr on yr to $4.95 billion in September, followed by mineral products ($645.24 million) and agro-based products ($492.62 million). Manufactured goods accounted for 79.2% of the whole exports in September.
By commodity group, electronic products was still the country’s top exports in September with $3.15 billion, down 23.1% from $4.09 billion a yr ago.
Semiconductor exports, which accounted for nearly all of electronic goods, dropped by 30.6% to $2.31 billion in September.
Exports of other manufactured goods increased by 73.7% to $506.69 million, while other mineral products rose by 16.2% to $330.23 million in September.
The USA remained the highest destination of Philippine-made goods, with exports valued at $1.08 billion. This accounted for 17.3% of total exports in June.
Hong Kong was the second-biggest market with an export value of $867.42 million (13.9% share), followed by Japan with $847.47 million (13.5%), China with $830.36 million (13.3%), and South Korea with $318.50 million (5.1%).
Other top export destinations include Thailand, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, and Taiwan.
IMPORTS
By sort of goods, imports of raw materials and intermediate goods increased by 19.5% to $4.33 billion in September, while capital goods inched up by 1.4% to $3.03 billion and consumer goods rose by 20.6% to $2.56 billion.
By way of value, electronic products had the very best import value at $2.4 billion in September, up by 8.9% from last yr. It made up 21.2% of the whole imports in September.
Imports of mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials slipped 11.4% yr on yr to $1.36 billion in September, while transport equipment also fell by an annual 3.1% to $1.12 billion.
In September, China was the most important source of imports valued at $2.84 billion, which made up 25% of the whole import bill.
This was followed by Indonesia with $1.09 billion (9.6%), Japan with $837.75 million (7.4%), South Korea with $784.65 million (6.9%), Thailand with $735.58 million (6.5%) and the USA with $6.298 million (6.7%).
GlobalSource Country Analysts Diwa C. Guinigundo said that the widening trade deficit was resulting from sluggish exports.
“We’re strong in imports, but our exports will not be doing thoroughly precisely because the worldwide economy was also not doing thoroughly,” he said in a phone call interview.
“Exports declined because the worldwide economy shouldn’t be exactly robust, while our imports were driven by the demand for imports of capital goods, raw materials and intermediate products, in addition to consumer imports like oil, cars,” he added.
Rizal Business Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said the rise in imports was also resulting from a stronger peso.
The peso closed at P56.03 per dollar at end-September, strengthening from the P56.111 finish at end-August.
For the approaching months, Mr. Ricafort said that the weakening peso would “make imports costlier from the perspective of local buyers, but would make exports more price competitive from the perspective of foreign buyers.”
“Increased demand other economic activities through the Christmas holiday season would help spur more imports/production activities and export sales,” Mr. Ricafort said.
