The country’s export earnings contracted for the third consecutive month in February, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Figures from the PSA showed the country’s export earnings declined 18.1 percent in February. In January and December 2022, export earnings contracted 13.1 percent and 7.7 percent, respectively.
Export revenues fell during the period mainly due to the 2.2-percent contraction in earnings from electronic products.
“The commodity group with the highest annual decline in the value of exports in February 2023 was electronic products, which dropped by $765.48 million,” PSA said.
PSA said this was followed by coconut oil and other mineral products, which fell by $156.54 million and $126.51 million, respectively.
Total export earnings in the first two months of the year amounted to $10.33 billion. This represented a decline of 15.6 percent from the year-to-date annual total export value of $12.25 billion in January to February 2022.
Meanwhile, the country’s total import bill contracted by 12.1 percent year-on-year to $8.95 billion in February.
In January, it recorded an annual increase of 4.1 percent, while in February 2022, it exhibited a double-digit annual increase of 26.3 percent.
With this, the country recorded a trade deficit amounting to $3.88 billion, which is narrower by 2.7 percent compared to the $3.98 billion in February 2022.
PSA data showed that in January 2023, the trade deficit recorded an annual growth of 27.1 percent and in February 2022, it posted an annual increase of 47.2 percent.
“The balance of trade in goods [BoT-G] is the difference between the value of export and import,” the PSA said.
In February, the country’s total external trade in goods amounted to $14.03 billion, which was 4.4 percent lower than the previous year’s level.
In January, total trade contracted 2.2 percent. It expanded by 22.1 percent in February 2022.
Of the total external trade in February, the PSA said 63.8 percent were imported goods, while the rest were exported goods.
Markets
According to the PSA, Japan was the country’s top export destination while the People’s Republic of China was the Philippines’s top source of imported products.
In terms of exports, Japan accounted for the highest export value amounting to $822.65 million or a share of 16.2 percent to the country’s total exports in February.
Other top export markets are
the United States with $756 million or 14.9 percent of the total; People’s Republic of China, $611.59 million or 12 percent; Hong Kong, $526.86 million or 10.4 percent; and Singapore, $310.6 million or 6.1 percent of total exports.
Meanwhile, China was the country’s biggest supplier of imported goods valued at $1.93 billion or 21.6 percent of the country’s total imports in February.
Other top sources of imports were Indonesia which accounted for $917.76 million or 10.2 percent of the country’s import receipts; Japan, $788.35 million or 8.8 percent; US, $648.81 million or 7.2 percent; and Republic of Korea, $593.22 million or 6.6 percent.