Imports grew by 15.6% to $30.5B in 1st half

The Philippines’ imports in June reached $4.5 billion—higher by 6.6 percent from the $4.2 billion reported in the same month last year, the National Statistics Office reported Thursday.

The increase in the prices of petroleum and related products jacked up the country’s imports, the NSO said. Month on month, however, imports slowed by 7.9 percent from the $4.888 billion seen in May.

For the January-June 2011 period, total imports grew by 15.6 percent to $30.5 billion from the $26.377 billion seen in the same period last year.

Benjamin E. Diokno, former budget secretary and a professor at the University of the Philippines, said in an e-mail that the 6.6 percent annual growth in imports last June indicated a slowdown, given the revised full-year growth target of 17 to 18 percent.

“The year-to-date average growth is 15.6 percent, lower than the annual target,” Diokno noted.

According to Cid L. Terosa, an economist with the University of Asia and the Pacific, the increase in imports in June was partly due to the increase in demand for production inputs used to produce goods for export and consumption for the rest of the year.

“Since export demand and consumption spending traditionally go up in the third and fourth quarters, firms and industries bought production inputs to support their production plans for the rest of the year. Also, the value of imports went up because the increase in the price of petroleum and related products pushed up the prices of imported goods that use petroleum and related products as production inputs,” Terosa said.

The value of electronics products, including consigned and direct importation, amounted to $1.147 billion in June 2011, accounting for 25.5 percent of the aggregate import bill for the month.

Electronics imports declined by 20.7 percent over last year’s figure of $1.447 billion.

On a monthly basis, electronics went down by 32.5 percent from the $1.7 billion recorded in May 2011. Imports of semiconductors, which formed bulk of trade in electronics products, contracted by 23 percent to $856.51 million in June from the $1.1 billion seen last year.

Imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, accounting for 23.1-percent share of total imports for June, grew by 42.5 percent to $1.04 billion from $729.72 million in June 2010.

Payments for industrial machinery and equipment, accounting for 5 percent of total imports for the month, were valued at $225.23 million. That was 11.8 percent higher than the $201.47 million registered in June 2010.

China was the top source of Philippine imports in June. Beijing supplied $470.44 million worth of products. That figure was 31.6 percent up from the $357.58 million seen in June 2010.

The United States supplied 10.2 percent of imports worth $458.59 million—up 8.1 percent from the $424.04 million reported in the same month last year.

Japan came in third with a 9.3 percent share. The value of imports from Japan fell by 22.7 percent to $416.90 million in June from $539.29 million of the same month last year.

Singapore accounted for 7.4 percent of the total import bill in June with $331.26 million—24 percent lower than the $435.65 million reported in the same month last year.

Taiwan, representing 6.6 percent of the total import bill, shipped in $298.59 million worth of goods.

Other major sources of imports were South Korea with $264 million (5.9 percent); Thailand, $261.38 million (5.8 percent); the Russian Federation, $261.06 million (5.8 percent); Saudi Arabia, $240 million (5.3 percent); and the United Arab Emirates, $234.87 million (5.2 percent).