The Philippines’ trade deficit continued to widen in November as export sales drop sharply, negating the impact of flat imports, data from the statistics office showed Wednesday.
The Philippine Statistics Authority released data in November that showed the country’s trading activity with the rest of the world resulted in a gaping deficit of USD4.69 billion, wider than the USD3.72 billion registered in November last year and the USD4.39 billion posted in October.
The country imported USD10.82 billion worth of goods in November, marginally higher than the USD10.817 billion in the same period last year and the USD10.76 billion in October. Top imports are transport equipment, metalliferous ores and metal scraps, and miscellaneous manufactured articles.
Total imports between January and November was down 8.6 percent year-on-year to USD116.01 billion.
China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and the US are the main sources of imports in November, with China supplying 25 percent of Philippine imports.
Exports, meantime, dropped 14 percent year-on-year in November to USD6.13 billion. It was also lower than the October sales of USD6.36 billion.
PSA said export revenue in November was pulled down mainly by lower sales of electronic products, coconut oil and gold. Electronic sales alone was down by USD1.13 billion in November to USD3.44 billion from the USD4.56 billion recorded in November of 2022.
Coconut oil exports was lower by USD28.6 million while the value of gold shipments in Number was down by USD18.6 million.
Exports revenue in the first 11 months of 2023 was down 8.4 percent to USD67.03 billion due mainly to the weakness in electronic products.
The US, Japan, China, Hong Kong and South Korea were the top five markets for Philippine exports in November, accounting for 62 percent of total shipments.
For the January to November period, the Philippines trade deficit stood at USD48.98 billion, narrower than the USD53.72 billion posted in the year-earlier period.
