The Philippines’ total merchandise trade in February 2020 reached US$12.46 billion, a decline of 5.9% from the $13.24 billion recorded in February 2019, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Of the total external trade, 43.4% were exported goods and 56.6% were imported goods. The decline came after two straight months of increases coming after eight consecutive months of decline.
The country’s balance of trade in goods in February 2020 posted a $1.66 billion deficit, which was lower by 39.4% than the $2.73 billion deficit in February 2019.
Imports dropped 11.6% in February 2020 to $7.06 billion from $7.98 billion in the same period last year due to the decreases in the top 10 major import commodities led by cereals and cereal preparations (-28.2%); industrial machinery and equipment (-24.7%); and transport equipment (-17.6%).
The decline in imports last February followed the first positive performance in January 2020 after nine straight months of decline last year.
READ: PH merchandise trade up 4.1% as imports, exports expand
Exports, on the other hand, grew for the second straight month this year by 2.8% to $5.40 billion from the $5.25 billion total sales in February 2019.
Largely contributing to the uptrend in February 2020 were six of the top 10 major export commodities, namely, other manufactured goods (45.0%); banana (fresh) (29.6%); other mineral products (13.2%); machinery and transport equipment (11.7%); gold (6.0%); and electronic products (3.4%).
By commodity group, electronic products remained as the country’s top import, accounting for 28.3% share or $2 billion of the total, while also continuing as the top export with 54.2% share or $2.93 billion.
By major type of goods, exports of manufactured goods accounted for the highest share of $4.39 billion or 81.4% of the total. For imports, raw materials and intermediate goods accounted for the largest share of $.66 billion or 37.7% of the total.
By trading partner, Japan accounted for the highest value of exports, followed by the United States (US), Hong Kong, China, and Singapore.
China remained as the Philippines’ biggest supplier of imported goods, while the other major import trading partners were Japan, South Korea, US, and Thailand.
Image by olafpictures from PixabayÂ
