Imports up 6.9% in Aug

MANILA, Philippines - Merchandise imports continued to rise in August as it grew 6.9 percent from the same month a year ago due to the positive performance of seven major commodity groups, the National Statistics Office (NSO) said yesterday.

The NSO said the value of imports increased to $5.542 billion in August from $5.184 billion in the same month last year.

Compared to the previous July level of $5.487 billion, the August results went up one percent.

“The positive growth was brought about by seven out of 10 major commodity groups with positive year-on-year change,” the NSO said.

These were metalliferous ores and metal scrap; transport equipment; mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials; telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery; plastics in primary and non-primary forms; iron and steel; industrial machinery and equipment.

Electronic products, the top imported commodity in August, however, dropped nine percent in terms of value to $1.340 billion from last year’s $1.472 billion.

By country source, China accounted for the bulk of the total import bill in August with 13 percent share.

Imports from China were valued at $720.23 million in August, 30 percent higher than the $553.82 million in the same month the previous year.

The NSO also said while imports in August rose year-on-year, the aggregate value for the first eight months of the year declined slightly to $40.644 billion from $41.017 billion in the comparable period in 2012.

Total external trade in goods for August reached $10.123 billion, representing a 12.5 percent improvement from the $8.994 billion recorded during the same month in the previous year.

This was due to the growth posted by both total imports and exports during the month.

Export earnings in August posted a 20.2 percent growth to reach $4.581billion from $3.810 billion recorded a year ago.

Based on the latest imports and exports results, the balance of trade in goods for the month registered a deficit of $961 million.