Domestic trade value up 30% in Q2

MANILA, Philippines - The value of commodities traded within the country rose 30 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said yesterday.

Preliminary results of the NSO’s commodity flow in the Philippines report showed the total value of domestic trade rose to P139.91 billion in the April to June period, up from the P107.6 billion in the comparable period last year.

“Trade transactions through water transport accounted for 99.3 percent, the same percentage recorded in the second quarter of 2011,” the NSO said.

Food and live animals accounted for the bulk or 29.1 percent of commodities traded throughout the country for the period valued at P40.73 billion.

Food and live animals also accounted for the largest share of commodities traded in the second quarter last year valued at P29.38 billion.

For this year, machinery and transport equipment had the second largest share at 22.8 percent worth P31.85 billion, while manufactured goods classified chiefly by materials came in third contributing P20.41 billion or 14.6 percent.

In terms of volume, domestic trade transactions were also up 31.6 percent to 4.87 million tons in the second quarter from last year’s 3.70 million tons.

The commodities were also traded mostly through water, making up 99.8 percent, the same as last year’s.

By region, the NSO said most of the traded commodities in the second quarter came from the National Capital Region (NCR) with the value of domestic trade amounting to P38.92 billion or 27.8 percent of the total.

For the same period in 2011, the NCR also had the biggest domestic trade share at P24.02 billion or 22.3 percent.