Philippine imports surged 11.8 percent to $4.86 billion in April from a year earlier, fueled largely by the soaring world prices of oil and rice.

The Philippines imports nearly all of its fuel requirements and has recently emerged as well as the world’s top importer of rice.

The April figure brought the country’s total imports from January to April to $19.46 billion, up 17.9 percent year-on-year.

With exports in the first four months coming in at $16.86 billion, the country posted a trade deficit of $2.6 billion, widening by 225 percent from only $800 million in January-April last year.

The rise in imports in April was despite the 10.7-percent slump in electronics imports to $1.59 billion, which was attributed to expectations by exporters that global demand for consumer electronics would weaken this year.

“The rise in imports did not mean that the economy was recovering nor demand by businesses for capital goods was increasing. The growth in imports was mostly accounted for by consumer goods, especially rice and oil,” said Victor Abola, economist from the University of Asia and the Pacific.

Abola said that of the nearly $500-million increase in imports in April from a year earlier, $295 million was accounted for by rice and oil. The rising prices of oil and rice in the world market forced the economy to spend more for these imports, he explained.

He projected the country’s trade deficit to hit anywhere between $9 billion and $10 billion by the end of the year.

According to the National Statistics Office’s report on the country’s external trade performance, mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials were the country’s second biggest imports for April at $1.04 billion. Imports for these commodities grew 13.7 percent from $912 million in April last year.

Other top imports for the month were transport equipment ($304 million), cereals and cereal preparation ($239.95 million), industrial machinery and equipment ($203.4 million), iron and steel ($136.42 million), chemicals ($94.29 million), fertilizers ($91.29 million), plastics ($90.29 million) and textile and related materials ($78.22 million).

Singapore was the biggest source of imports for April, accounting for $702.99 million. The United States fell to second with $568 million.

Other top sources of imports for April were Japan ($552.44 million), Saudi Arabia ($424.24 million), China ($350.08 million), Taiwan ($297.61 million), South Korea ($222 million), Thailand ($199.24 million), Malaysia ($173.25 million) and Hong Kong ($172.92 million).

The central bank, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), expects the Philippines’ trade deficit to surge 33 percent to $11 billion this year as global prices of oil and rice bloat the import bill at a time that export earnings are slowing down.

The BSP’s policymaking Monetary Board estimated in a recent mid-year assessment that the full-year trade gap, equivalent to 6 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), would widen from the $8.24-billion deficit in 2007 and the $9.31-billion shortfall earlier forecast in May.

This, in turn, is seen to pare down the country’s current account surplus to $4.2 billion from $6.9 billion as earlier projected.

In the BSP’s assessment, the Philippines will earn $52.3 billion from exports this year, up a modest five percent from 2007, given a US-led global slowdown. This suggests a 29-percent contribution by the export sector to domestic output this year.

The BSP expects the import bill to grow 10 percent—twice as fast as export earnings—to $63.3 billion because of surging fuel and food prices. With editing by INQUIRER.net