March imports grow by 9.6%

MANILA, Philippines - The country's merchandise imports jumped by 9.6 percent in March, posting $5.425 billion from the $4.952 billion posted a year ago, the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA) announced on Tuesday.

"The increase in total imports was due to the positive performance of six out of the top ten major commodities for the month. These are: transport equipment; plastics in primary and non-primary forms; mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials; miscellaneous manufactured articles; other food and live animals; and organic and inorganic chemicals," PSA noted.

Imports during the first quarter of 2014 amounted to $16.168 billion, a 12-percent increase from the $14.436 billion recorded during the comparable period last year. The balance of goods for the Philippines also posted a lower deficit of $146 million in March compared to the $253 million posted in the same period last year.

As indicated in the latest Business Expectations Survey of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the positive performance is a reflection of businesses' more upbeat outlook on their own operations in the second quarter of 2014, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said.

“The volumes of business activity index and total order book index reached an all-time high of 46.1 and 39.7 index points, respectively. This is mainly due to robust expectations on consumer demand and infrastructure spending, partly boosted by the Typhoon Yolanda rehabilitation efforts during the period," Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director-General Arsenio Balisacan said.

China was top source of the country's imports with a 15.2 percent share of $825.5 million of the total receipts. This was followed by South Korea (12 percent), Singapore (7.9 percent), United States of America (7.7 percent), Japan (7.4 percent), Taiwan (6.4 percent), France (5.6 percent), Thailand (4.7 percent), Indonesia (4.7 percent) and Saudi Arabia (4.2 percent).

Trading partners from the Association of Southeast Asian nations represented 22.4 percent of Philippine merchandise imports, amounting to $1.2 billion. The European Union followed with $712.8 million or 13.1 percent of total import receipts.

"The Philippines followed Vietnam and Singapore as top import growth performers among major trade-oriented economies in East and Southeast Asia. Vietnam continued to lead the region with a 13.7-percent year-on-year growth while Singapore placed second with a 13.4-percent annual gain," NEDA said.