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Thursday, August 18, 2005
Senator questions 'inaccurate' trade figures
* False picture of the economy presented by gov't, Villar laments
SENATOR Manuel Villar Wednesday voiced concern that the method used in the valuation of balance of trade in the last few years was not reflective of the true condition of the Philippines' trade accounts, particularly on exports and imports industry.
"I found it hard to believe that all these years, when the government reported trade surpluses, there were really trade deficits. To make matters worse, the discrepancies in the trade accounts were not reported and corrected immediately," Villar said.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), National Statistics and Coordination Board (NSCB) and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) showed to the House committee on economic affairs the nature of revisions in the balance of trade valuation method, which consequently created discrepancies in the country's previous trade accounts reports.
According to the data from the BSP, there were significant discrepancies in the balance of trade, before and after the revision in the trade valuation method. In 2002, for example, instead of a trade surplus of US$1.595 billion, there was instead a trade deficit of US$218.35 million or a discrepancy of US$1.813 billion. Discrepancies were reported from the year 2000 up to the present year.
"These trade discrepancies have serious implications because we are talking of billions of dollars in differences here. All the while, our government officials are bragging about trade surpluses in their accomplishment reports when there are no surpluses in the first place but deficits," Villar said.
"The fact that the Philippines had trade deficits since 2001 reveals that our balance of payments (BOP) situation is actually worse than what our government officials claimed. This may affect past bilateral trade negotiations our government had with other countries since the true picture of the economy was not presented," he added. (JPM/Sunnex)
(August 18, 2005 issue)
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