MANILA: The Philippines’ trade deficit widened sharply in July from a year earlier, with both exports and imports posting declines, government data showed on Friday.
“The balance of trade in goods (BOT-G) for the Philippines in July 2016 registered a deficit of $2.053 billion, higher than the $1.475 billion trade deficit in the same month last year,” the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said in a statement released with the trade data.
Export sales in July dropped 13.0 percent year-on-year to $4.673 billion from $5.371 billion, while total imports fell 1.7 percent to $6.726 billion from $6.846 billion.
The trade gap in July, however, was narrower than the $2.098 billion deficit recorded for June this year.
