MANILA: The Philippines’ trade deficit widened in November as imports rose at a double-digit pace, expanding for a sixth month on a surge in the purchases of electronic products as well as industrial, telecommunications, and transport equipment.
The Philippine Statistics Authority said Tuesday that imports in November totalled $6.09 billion, up 10.1% from $5.54 billion in the year-earlier period. That pushed January-November imports higher by 4.5% from a year earlier to $62.63 billion.
With exports earlier reported at $5.12 billion, the country’s trade deficit widened to $976.9 million from a deficit of $361.4 million in the year-earlier period.
The trade deficit in the January-November period widened to $8.64 billion from $2.63 billion in the year-earlier period.
Imports of electronic products, mainly raw materials for the country’s top export item, surged 69% from a year earlier in November to $2.13 billion.
China was the biggest source of imports in November, accounting for 17% of total purchases from abroad. Philippine imports from China rose 8.5% from a year earlier to $1.02 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $514.9 million.
Imports from Japan rose 61% from a year earlier to $721.1 million in November. Even so, the Philippines still had a trade surplus of $369.7 million with Japan.
Goods purchased from the U.S. in November rose 34% from a year earlier to $619.6 million. Still, the Philippines exported more to the U.S. during the month and had a trade surplus of $97.1 million.
