THE country’s trade gap widened year on year in August as growth in imports still outpaced the increase in exports, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024,
Trade-in-goods balance — the difference between exports and imports — stood at a US$4.375-billion deficit in August, up by 6.6 percent from a $4.105-billion gap in the same month last year.
Year to date, the trade deficit narrowed by 4.35 percent to $34.3 billion from the $35.86-billion gap a year ago.
In August 2024, the country’s total external trade in goods reached $17.87 billion, marking a 1.8 percent increase compared to the $17.56 billion recorded in the same month last year.
Of the total trade in August, 62.2 percent were imports, and 37.8 percent were exports.
Sales from export posted a positive growth. Total export sales in August amounted to $6.75 billion, up 0.3 percent from the $6.73 billion total export sales in the same month last year.
The year-to-date total value of exports, that is from January to August, amounted to $49.41 billion, representing an annual increase of 2.3 percent.
By commodity group, electronic products continued to be the country’s top exports in August with total earnings of $3.57 billion or 52.9 percent of the country’s total exports during the period. This was followed by other manufactured goods with an export value of $578.16 million and other mineral products with $272.16 million.
By major trading partner, exports to the United States of America (USA) comprised the highest export value amounting to $1.22 billion or a share of 18.1 percent of the country’s total exports in August. This was followed by Hong Kong ($942.56 million), Japan ($935.33 million), China ($849.38 million), and Korea ($332.64 million).
Meanwhile, the country’s total import goods amounted to $11.12 billion, up by 2.7 percent from the $10.83 billion import value in the same month of the previous year.
Year-to-date, the annual total import value amounted to $83.70 billion, down by 0.5 percent from $84.17 billion in the same period last year.
Imports of raw materials and intermediate goods accounted for the largest share of the country’s total imports in August amounting to $4.06 billion. This was followed by capital goods with a share of $3 billion and consumer goods with an import value of $2.24 billion.
China remains the largest supplier of imported goods valued at $2.79 billion. This was followed by Indonesia ($972.40 million), Korea ($925.36 million), Japan ($827.11 million) and the USA ($707.33 million. / KOC