Trade gap widens as exports extend slide

Sales of Philippine-made goods abroad dipped for the third straight month in March, such that merchandise exports declined 6 percent year-on-year to $15.8 billion in the first quarter, the government reported yesterday.

In March alone, exports dropped 8.2 percent year-on-year to $5.5 billion, the fastest decline in three months, preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.

Even as electronic products, which account for more than half of Philippine exports, grew 6.8 percent to $3.2 billion in March, other major export commodities faced a slump, such as machinery and transport equipment (down 44.6 percent), gold (down 33.8 percent), coconut oil (down 30.3 percent), ignition wiring set and other wiring sets used in vehicles, aircraft and ships (down 28.9 percent), other manufactured goods (down 24.5 percent), as well as other mineral products (down 21.5 percent).

Imports, meanwhile, rose 6.8 percent year-on-year to $24.4 billion during the first three months, even as receipts inched up by only 0.1 percent to $8.1 billion in March, the slowest growth in eight months.

Imported mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials increased 30.6 percent in March; iron and steel, up 14.5 percent; electronic products, up 6.7 percent; and telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery, up 4.4 percent.

As the value of imported goods continued to outpace that of exports, the balance of trade in goods remained at a deficit of $8.7 billion in the first quarter, 41.9 percent wider than the $6.1-billion deficit in the same period last year.

In March alone, the trade in goods deficit widened 23.9 percent to $2.6 billion from $2.1 billion a year ago.