Trade deficit narrows to $4 billion in December

MANILA, Philippines — The country’s trade deficit narrowed in December as both exports and imports declined, bringing the full-year 2023 trade gap to $52.42 billion, down from the previous year’s shortfall of $57.65 billion, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said.

According to the PSA, the balance of trade in goods, or the difference between exports and imports, in December last year resulted in a deficit of $4.01 billion, narrower by 11 percent than the $4.51-billion shortfall in the same month in 2022.

The December 2023 trade deficit was also smaller compared to the previous month’s $4.73 billion gap.

Pantheon Macroeconomics chief emerging Asia economist Miguel Chanco said that a return to the black for exports “seems almost inevitable in the current quarter, as base effects will become even more favorable in January and February.”

The country’s export sales were down slightly to $5.78 billion in December 2023 from $5.81 billion in the same period in 2022.

Electronic products remained the top export, accounting for 58.4 percent of the total in December last year.

The value of electronic exports went up by 2.8 percent to $3.38 billion in December 2023 from $3.29 billion in the same month in 2022.

Hong Kong was the Philippines’ biggest export market in December last year, accounting for $951.14 million or 16.5 percent of the total.

Meanwhile, Philippine imports of goods in December last year amounted to $9.79 billion, 5.1 percent lower than the $10.32 billion import value in the same month of 2022.

Electronic products accounted for the highest import value in December last year, amounting to $2.09 billion or 21.4 percent of the total.

In terms of import source, China remained the country’s biggest supplier of goods valued at $2.28 billion or 23.2 percent of the total in December 2023.

For the whole of 2023, the country’s merchandise exports were valued at $73.52 billion, down 7.6 percent from $79.57 billion in 2022. 

Goods imported by the country declined 8.2 percent to $125.95 billion in 2023 from $137.22 billion in 2022.