Imports rebound 4.1% in November

MANILA, Philippines - Philippine imports rebounded by 4.1 percent in November last year, the first monthly growth recorded in 14 months, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday.

The government statistics office said imports amounted to $3.626 billion in November from $3.484 billion in the same period in 2008. On a month-on-month basis, however, imports tumbled by 4.8 percent from October’s $3.808 billion.

The last time imports recorded an increase was in September 2008, just before the world plummeted into a period of financial turmoil from which it has yet to fully recover.

The government had earlier reported a similar turnaround in November exports, which increased 5.7 percent year-on-year to $3.71 billion for the first rise in 10 months.

For the first 11 months of the year, the country’s imports dropped 26.8 percent to $39.112 billion from the 2008 level of $53.445 billion.

Ron Rodrigo of DBP-Daiwa Securities said that the rise in overall imports “is reflective of what we’re now seeing as a modest growth in the economy.”

Simon Wong, an economist with Standard Chartered Bank, said the increase in November was weaker than expected, given the low base and high global oil prices.

“This reflects that both processing trade and domestic demand remained weak in the fourth quarter of last year,” Wong added.

Semiconductors and other items that are used to make products for the country’s key electronics exports fell 5.2 percent last November compared with a year earlier.

However, the turnaround was achieved through rises in fuel, industrial machinery and metals.

Purchases of electronic parts, which accounted for 33.6 percent of the total import bill, fell 5.2 percent to $1.219 billion in November last year from the $1.286-billion recorded in the same period in 2008. This was mainly caused by a 10.9-percent drop in semiconductor imports, which had the biggest share of electronic purchases at 23.9 prcent.

Electronic parts are mostly used in the country’s export industry. 

Other key imports in November were fuel, electrical and industrial machinery, transport equipment, iron, steel and textiles.

Japan remained the country’s largest source of imports for the month with a 12-percent share, recording payments worth $433.86 million. This was a 10-percent drop from the November 2008 level of $483.78 million.

The United States came in second with $384.11 million or a 10.6 percent share of the total import bill, followed by Singapore ($319.35 million), China ($299.60 million), and Korea ($281.25 million).

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) expects imports to slip 25 percent in 2009 but grow 13 prcent to 15 percent in 2010. It expects exports to fall 25 percent in 2009 and rise by seven percent to nine percent this year.