PH trade deficit swelled by 38% in 2022

The Philippines’ deficit in the trade of goods grew by 38 percent to $58.3 billion in 2022 from $42.2 billion in 2021.

For December alone, the trade deficit declined by 10 percent to $4.6 billion from $5.1 billion in the same month of 2021, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.

This happened as both export receipts and the import bill narrowed by 10 percent.

Preliminary data also show that two-way traffic of goods in 2022 was valued at $216 billion, an increase of 13 percent from $191.5 billion a year earlier.

In December, total trade amounted to $15.9 billion or 10 percent less than the $17.7 billion exchanged in the same month of 2021.