Imports down 5.8% in Feb

MANILA, Philippines - The country’s merchandise imports continued to decline in February as purchases of eight out of 10 major commodity groups from overseas slowed, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported yesterday.

The NSO said imports were valued at $4.708 billion in February, down 5.8 percent from the same month last year.

In January, imports contracted eight percent year-on-year.

Compared to January’s imports worth $4.727 billion, the value of imports in February dropped slightly by 0.4 percent.

For the January to February period, imports fell 6.9 percent to $9.435 billion from the comparable period a year ago.

The NSO said the lower imports in February resulted in the decline in payments for electronic products bought from overseas.

Payments for purchases of electronic products, which made up 26.5 percent of the aggregate import bill, amounted to $1.248 billion in February, a 12.6 percent decrease from last year.

The NSO said the value of other imported goods also dropped year-on-year in February such as transport equipment; organic and inorganic chemicals; plastics in primary and non-primary forms; iron and steel; telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery; industrial machinery and equipment; and other food and live animals.

The United States of America including Alaska and Hawaii was the biggest source of imports in February with its 11.6 percent share valued at $547.43 million, up slightly from the previous year’s $542.92 million.

University of the Philippines economist Benjamin Diokno said in an email yesterday the contraction of imports for two consecutive months does not augur well for the country’s exports.

“This suggests that the external trade sector will continue to experience weaknesses in the first quarter. Economic growth for the first quarter may have to rely heavily on domestic factors,” he said.

With the actual numbers representing one-sixth of potential total imports for the year, he added that imports are more likely to grow by seven percent this year, lower than the government’s forecast of 12 percent.

Total external trade in goods for February dipped by 10.4 percent to $8.449 billion from the $9.427 billion in the same month in 2012.

This as imports slowed and exports posted a 15.6 percent decrement to $3.741 billion in February month from a year ago.

As a result, the balance of trade in goods registered a deficit of $967 million in February compared to the $566 million deficit in the same period last year.