Domestic trade value rises by 16.4% in Q2
According to the Institute for Development and Econometric Analysis, Inc. latest NewsBriefs, the domestic trade value rises by 16.4percent in the second quarter of 2014. The Philippine Statistics Authority reports that the value of goods traded domestically grew to P170.20 billion in the second quarter of 2014, 16.4percent higher than the P146.24 billion posted in the second quarter of 2013. Total quantity of domestic trade transactions also amounted to 4.87 million tons.
Water transport continued to be the primary mode of transporting domestic goods within the archipelago. Air transport accounted for less than 1percent of the transactions.
By commodity, food and live animals dominated nearly 30percent of the value of domestic transactions, followed by machinery and transport equipment at 22.7percent, manufactured goods at 13.9percent, mineral fuels and lubricants at 10.5percent. By region, the National Capital Region (NCR) unsurprisingly topped the list by accounting for a third of the domestic trade share value, followed by Western Visayas with 17.6percent, and Northern Mindanao with 10.5percent.
The NCR raked in a favorable trade balance of P27.36 billion as outflows of goods exceeded inflows.
Furthermore per same published report, in its latest assessment of the government’s expenditure program, the Department of Budget and Management reported that infrastructure spending plummeted by 27.9percent to only P19.9 billion in July 2014 from P27.6 billion a year earlier. In broader categories, capital outlays and personnel services also fell 24.3percent and 9.9percent, respectively.
Only maintenance and operating expenditures rose by 7.8percent. Total government spending from January to July 2014 has already amounted to P1.16 trillion.
Moreover per IDEA, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas noted that inflation in the third quarter of 2014 hit 4.6percent, compared to the 2.4 percent registered in the same period in 2013. The rising prices of food items, exacerbated by tight supply bottlenecks and unfavorable weather conditions, mainly fueled inflation. Prices of non-food items, meanwhile, deflated as domestic petroleum became cheaper. Core inflation stood at 3.2percent.
Likewise, the country’s M3, dubbed as the broadest measure of money supply in an economy, expanded by 18.5percent in August 2014 to reach P7.1 trillion according to the BSP. Local demand for credit continued to buoy money supply growth as lending by universal and commercial banks rose 20.2percent, slightly lower than the 21.1percent increase in July 2014. Loans for production purposes took up the lion’s share of the industry’s P4.092 trillion loan portfolio.
Lastly, in a much needed move to increase the country’s power supply, Aboitiz Power Corp. is aiming to establish energy projects all over the Philippines that will add about 2,000 megawatts in the next five years. Also this March 2015, Philippine Airlines, Inc. (PAL) will start offering weekly regular flights to New York City via Canada. The flight from Manila to New York is estimated to take 16.5 flying hours and 14,501 kilometers, according to the researchers of IDEA.
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