Exports of Philippine-made goods rose at a much faster pace at 12 percent in the first two-months of the year owing to strong demand for electronic products, the government announced.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released data on Friday, April 8, showing that exports earnings grew 12 percent to $12.2 billion in January to February from $10.9 billion in the same period last year. In February alone, exports jumped 15 percent to $6.16 billion from $5.35 billion a year earlier.
The end-February 2022 export growth was also faster than the four percent expansion recorded in the previous year when it surpassed the $10.5 billion pre-pandemic level in 2019.
Based on the PSA data, electronics remained to be the top export product, accounting for 55.9 percent of total with an earning of $3.44 billion.
Major electronics exports were components/devices such as semiconductors, electronic data processing devices, telecommunication equipment, consumer electronics, and control and instrumentation.
Meanwhile, the US remains the country’s biggest export buyer, accounting for 15 percent or $966.7 million of the total shipments in February, followed by Japan, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
On the other hand, the country’s expenditures for imported goods rose 24 percent to $20.45 billion in the first two-months from $16.49 billion in the previous year.
In February alone, total imported goods amounted to $9.69 billion, up 20.1 percent year-on-year.
Most of the imports were electronic products valued at $2.40 billion or a share of 24.8 percent to the total. This was followed by mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, with $1.67 billion and transport equipment amounting to $916.95 million.
The People’s Republic of China was the country’s biggest supplier of imported goods valued at $1.77 billion or 18.3 percent of the total in February.
Completing the top five major import trading were Republic of Korea, $1.05 billion; Japan, $908.06 million; Indonesia, $705.26 million; and the US, $610.97 million.
Meanwhile, the country’s balance of trade in goods recorded a narrower deficit of $3.53 billion from $4.71 billion in January as the value of imports continued to outpace growth in exports.