Philippine trade gap widens to $1.83B in July

The Philippine trade gap widened in July even as the drop in imports outpaced that of exports during the period, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) revealed Thursday.

According to data released by the PSA, the balance of trade in goods (BoT-G) recorded a deficit of $1.83 billion in July.

This is wider than the $1.375-billion deficit recorded in June, but narrower than the $3.641-billion deficit registered in July 2019.

A deficit indicates that the value of a country’s imports exceeded export receipts, while a surplus indicates more export shipments than imports.

Total external trade in goods for the month amounted to $13.13 billion, reflecting an annual decline of 18.6%, slightly lower than June's annual drop of 18.7%.

Broken down, export sales fell by 9.6% to $5.65 billion, slower than the previous month's drop of 12.5%.

Losers for the month were gold (-41.6%), ignition wiring set and other wiring sets (-35.9%), machinery and transport equipment (-30.9%), fresh bananas (-21.6%), and other manufactured goods (-16.2%).

Meanwhile, top gainers for exports were other mineral products which grew by 52.2%, and cathodes which rose by 21.3%.

In terms of imports, total goods fell 24.4% to $7.48 billion, reflecting the 15th straight month of contraction in terms of value.

Losers for the period were transport equipment (-69.2%), cereals and cereal preparations (-37.8%), mineral fuels (-36.2%), industrial machinery (-32.1%), and plastics (-29.8%). — RSJ, GMA News