By means of Aubrey Rose A. Inosante, Reporter
Trade in the Philippinesthe goods shortage rose to $5.09 billion in September, the largest trade deficit in 20 months, the Philippine Statistical Authority (PSA) said on Wednesday.
Preliminary data from the PSA showed that the balance of trade in goods – the difference between exports and imports – stood at a deficit of $5.09 billion in September, up 43.4% from the deficit of 3, $55 billion a year ago.
Month on month, the trade gap increased by 15.81%, compared to $4.39 billion in August.
The country’s trade balance in goods has been in the red for 112 months in a row (more than nine years) since the $64.95 million surplus in May 2015.
In September, exports fell 7.6% to $6.26 billion, compared to $6.77 billion a year ago. This was the biggest drop since June.
For the FIn the first nine months, exports increased by 1.1% to $55.67 billion.
The Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) expects export growth of 5% this year.
On the other hand, the value of imports rose 9.9% year-on-year to $11.34 billion in September, compared to $10.32 billion in the same period last year.
In the nine-month period, imports rose 0.6% to $95.07 billion. This is below the DBCC target of 2% import growth this year.
ELECTRONICS EXPORTS
Among the major commodity types, exports of industrial goods fell 11.1% year-on-year to $4.95 billion in September, followed by mineral products ($645.24 million) and agricultural products ($492.62 million). Manufactured goods accounted for 79.2% of total exports in September.
By commodity group, electronic products were still the country’s top exports in September at $3.15 billion, down 23.1% from $4.09 billion a year ago.
Semiconductor exports, which accounted for the majority of electronic goods, fell 30.6% to $2.31 billion in September.
Exports of other manufactured goods rose 73.7% to $506.69 million, while other mineral products rose 16.2% to $330.23 million in September.
The United States remained the top destination for Philippine-made goods, with exports worth $1.08 billion. This accounted for 17.3% of total exports in June.
Hong Kong was the second largest 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 important export destinations are Thailand, the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore and Taiwan.
IMPORT
By type of goods, imports of raw materials and intermediate goods rose 19.5% to $4.33 billion in September, while capital goods rose 1.4% to $3.03 billion and consumer goods rose 20.6% to $2.56 billion.
In terms of value, electronic products had the highest import value of US$2.4 billion in September, an increase of 8.9% from last year. It represented 21.2% of total imports in September.
Imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials fell 11.4% year on year to $1.36 billion in September, while transportation equipment also fell 3.1% annually to $1.12 billion.
In September, China was the largest source of imports, worth $2.84 billion, accounting for 25% of the total 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 United States with $6.298 million (6.7%). ).
GlobalSource country analysts Diwa C. Guinigundo said the widening trade deficit was due to sluggish exports.
“We are strong in imports, but our exports are not doing so well, precisely because the global economy has not been doing so well either,” he said in a telephone interview.
“Exports fell as the global economy is not particularly robust, while our imports were driven by demand for imports of capital goods, raw materials and intermediate products, as well as consumer imports such as oil and cars,” he added.
Michael L. Ricafort, chief economist of Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said the increase in imports was also due to a stronger peso.
The peso closed at P56.03 per dollar at the end of September, up from P56.111 at the end of August.
For the coming months, Ricafort said the weakening peso “would make imports more expensive from the perspective of local buyers, but would make exports more price competitive from the perspective of foreign buyers.”
“Higher demand for other economic activities during the Christmas holidays could help stimulate more import/manufacturing activities and export sales,” Mr Ricafort said.