PH exports, imports up in January

The Philippines’ exports and imports both grew in January following a landmark trade deal between the United States and China, but economists see rough times ahead for the trade sector due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The latest preliminary Philippine Statistics Authority data released on Tuesday showed that merchandise exports rose 9.7 percent year-on-year to $5.8 billion last January, while the value of imports inched up by 1 percent to $9.3 billion.

Total external trade increased by 4.1 percent to $15.1 billion and the trade deficit shrank by a tenth to $3.5 billion due to the surge in exports.

“The narrowing trade deficit may be another reason why the peso has managed to outpace regional peers, now under pressure from COVID-19 concerns,” ING senior economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa said in a report.In January, the United States was the top export destination of Philippine-made goods while China remained the biggest source of imports.

“January export numbers have not captured the COVID-19 impact yet, with the export growth likely residual effects from the December levels and driven

by orders related to the ‘phase one’ trade deal between the US and China, and mostly fulfilled by the electronics subsector,” Security Bank chief economist Robert Dan Roces said in a separate report.

Outbound shipments of electronic products—the Phi­l­­ip­pines’ biggest export commodity—jumped 15.8 percent to $3.2 billion in January. INQ