PHL trade deficit a bit narrower at $1B in Jan. – NSO

The Philippines incurred a narrower trade deficit of $1.010 billion last January from $1.302 billion a year earlier, the National Statistics Office said Tuesday, citing preliminary data.   The total foreign trade in goods reached $9.257 billion in January, up 0.5 percent from $9.303 billion a year earlier, the NSO said, noting the poor performance of imports that weighed on total trade.   “This was due to the 3.2 percent downward trend of total imports from $5.302 billion to $5.134 billion in January 2012,” the NSO said.   Exports increased by 3.1 percent to $4.123 billion from $4.000 billion.   Accounting for 26.2 percent of the import bill, payments for electronic products—including consigned and direct importation using the expanded coverage of electronic products—amounted to $1.344 billion. “It went down by 26.9 percent over last year's figure of $1.839 billion,” according to the NSO.   Month-on-month, imported electronic products grew by 6.0 percent from $1.268 billion in December 2011.   Among the major groups of electronic products, components/devices—or semiconductors—had the biggest share of 19.6 percent. But the import bill for this component went down by 34.2 percent from $1.531 billion to $1.007 billion.   Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials in January ranked second at 25.7-percent share and had the highest positive annual growth rate of 45.3 percent among the top 10 imports for that month, to $1.321 billion from $909.02 million.   Transport equipment was the PH’s third top import with 5.8-percent share to total imports valued at $296.97 million, and reflecting 8.6-percent increase from $273.36 million.   Among the Top 10 Philippine importers were industrial machinery and equipment ($237.72 million from $270.26 million, down 12.0 percent), organic and inorganic chemicals ($151.45 million from $137.14 million, up 10.4 percent), plastics in primary and non-primary forms ($144.67 million from $146.57 million, down 1.3 percent).   Rounding up the list of the Top 10 imports last January were metalliferous ores and metal scrap ($135.99 million), iron and steel ($132.74 million), telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery ($97.70 million), paper and paper products ($68.44 million).   Aggregate payments for the country’s Top 10 imports for January 2012 reached $3.930 billion or 76.6 percent of the total import bill, the NSO said.   People’s Republic of China was the country’s biggest source of imports with 10.4-percent share of the total import bill, up 13.9 percent to $535.63 million from $470.40 million year-on-year. Exports to People’s Republic of China amounted to $591.23 million, yielding a two-way trade value of $1.127 billion and a Philippine trade surplus of $55.61 million.   Japan including Okinawa stood as the second biggest source of imports with 10.1-percent share. Payments were recorded at $518.99 million, a decrease of 7.4 percent from $560.54 million.  Revenue from exports to Japan, on the other hand, reached $706.93 million, generating a total trade of $1.226 billion and $187.95-million trade surplus for the Philippines.   United States of America (USA) including Alaska and Hawaii came third, accounting for 9.0 percent share of the total import bill, with negative growth of 20.7 percent from $583.92 million to $462.82 million. Exports to USA amounted to $662.80 million resulting in total trade value of $1.126 billion and a trade surplus of $199.98 million.   The other top trading partners of the Philippines last January include Republic of Korea, with total imports of $402.37 million from $583.24 million, down 31.0 percent.   Exports to Republic of Korea totaled $171.51 million for total trade value of $573.88 million and a trade deficit of $230.87 million.   Singapore represented 7.3 percent of the total import bill in January, amounting to $372.32 million.   Export receipts from Singapore reached $340.87 million, yielding $713.19 million in trade value and a trade deficit of $31.45 million.   Other major sources of imports last January were Taiwan ($300.07 million), Thailand ($238.24 million), Saudi Arabia ($230.86 million), United Arab Emirates ($199.92 million), and Malaysia including Sabah and Sarawak ($192.19 million).   Payments for imports from the Top 10 sources amounted to $3.453 billion or 67.3 percent of the total, the NSO said. — Graphs by NSO/VS, GMA News