Philippine trade gap narrowed further to $1.73B in November 2020 —PSA

The Philippines’ balance of trade in goods narrowed further in November 2020 on the back growth in exports and continued decline in imports during the period, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported Friday.

Data released by the PSA showed that the balance of trade stood at a deficit of $1.730 billion in November 2020, down 52.6% from $3.652 billion  in November 2019.

November 2020’s trade shortfall is also narrower than October 2020’s $1.786-billion trade gap.

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

Total trade or the summation of imports and exports during the period amounted to $13.31 billion, down 10.6% from $14.898 billion in November 2019.

In particular, exports in November 2020 amounted to $5.79 billion, up 3% from $5.62 billion in November 2019 due to annual increases posted by cathodes and sections of cathodes, of refined copper (83.2%); gold (59.5%); and coconut oil (40.4%).

But declines were recorded in mineral products and other manufactured goods (-14.4%); machinery and transport equipment (-5.9%).

“By major trading partner, exports to the United States of America (USA) comprised the highest export value amounting to %956.80 million or a share of 16.5% to the total exports during the month,” the PSA said.

Completing the top five major export trading partners with their export values and percent shares to the total exports were China with $923.65 million or 15.9% share, Japan with $872.95 million or 15.1%, Hong Kong with $736.13 million or 12.7%, and

Singapore with $313.89 million or 5.4%.

Meanwhile, imports continued its downtrend in November 2020 declining by 18.9% to $7.52 billion.

“The value of imports registered a negative annual growth rate for 19 consecutive months since May 2019,” the PSA said.

“The annual decrease of imported goods in November 2020 was due to the decrease in all top 10 major import commodities,” it added.

The annual rate of decline was fastest in transport equipment (-42.7%). This was followed by industrial machinery and equipment (-32.6%); mineral fuels, lubricants, and related materials (-30.2%); other food and live animals (25.5%); miscellaneous manufactured articles (24.6%); plastics in primary and non-primary forms (23.8%); iron and steel (13.6%); telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery (12.8%); metal products (12.6%); and electronic products (-0.1%).

China was the country’s biggest supplier of imported goods valued at $2.02 billion or 26.8% of the total imports in November 2020.

Completing the top five major import trading partners were Japan with $734.35 million or 9.8% share, USA with $554.40 million or 7.4%, Indonesia with $545.58 million or 7.3%, and Korea with $528.88 million or 7.0%.—AOL, GMA News