EU-Phl trade up 34% to 9.1 billion euro in 2010

MANILA, Philippines -  Trade between the European Union and the Philippines posted the highest growth rate in over 10 years as it grew by 34 percent to 9.1 billion euro in 2010.

European Union Ambassador Guy Ledoux made this announcement following the release of the EU-Philippines Trade Factfile of 2010.

Ledoux cited that the increase was attributed to the recovery of the EU and the Philippine economies from the global economic crisis.respectively.

He also said that Philippine exports to the EU rebounded by 40 percent to 5.4 billion euro, while EU exports to the Philippines rebounded by 26 percent to 3.7 billion euro. As a result, the Philippines‘ trade surplus with the EU nearly doubled to 1.6 billion euro in 2010.

This growth has once more confirmed the EU as the country’s fourth largest trading partner while the Philippines improved its rank among EU trading partners from 47 in 2009 to 42 in 2010. Electronics account for the bulk of the Philippine trade with the EU, but other manufactures and agricultural trade have also been growing in importance. Specifically, both manufactured and agricultural trade enjoyed strong double-digit growth rates of 34 percent and 48 percent respectively.

While EU-Philippines trade in services is more modest, with exports and imports roughly in balance and stable at 2.2 billion euro in 2009, there is potential for further growth. More specifically, the Philippines is being ranked second only to India as a business process off-shoring destination while Europe is considered the world’s largest off-shoring market.

In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), the EU is the largest investor in the Philippines, with a total stock of 6.6 billion euro or a share of about 38 percent in total FDI stock in the Philippines . EU-FDI flows in the Philippines have remained positive despite the global economic crisis in 2008 and have been standing at 255 million euro in 2009.

The Philippines has also identified investment opportunities in the European Union, which is the world’s largest economy and biggest market.

The EU is also the third largest recipient of land-based migrant Filipinos, numbering 660,000 as of 2009. Together with an estimated 120,000 Filipino seafarers who are manning European ships, they have sent 2 billion euro of remittances to the Philippines in 2010, which makes the EU the second largest source of remittances to the Philippines after the United States.

Finally, with 297,000 European visitors, the EU was the country’s fifth largest source of tourists (after South Korea, USA, Japan, ASEAN) in 2010.