Current account reverts to deficit

THE current account— a major component of the country’s balance of payments— posted $ 2.931- million deficit in the second quarter of 2018, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ( BSP) data released on Friday showed.

This was a reversal from the $ 157- million surplus recorded a year earlier.

The second quarter result brought the year- todate tally to a $ 3.087- billion deficit, wider than the $ 133- million gap seen in the comparable 2017 period and slightly lower than the BSP’s

$ 3.1- billion target for 2018.

In a press briefing, BSP Department of Economic Statistics Director Redentor Paolo Alegre Jr. pointed out that the second quarter outcome “was due to the higher tradeingoods deficit and the lower net receipts in the primary income account, even as the trade- inservices and secondary income account posted increased net receipts during the quarter.”

The current account

consists of transactions in goods, services, primary income and secondary income, and measures the net transfer of real resources between the domestic economy and the rest of the world.

Alegre highlighted that the trade- in- goods deficit widened to $ 12.9 billion in the second quarter, from $ 9.1 billion a year ago, “as a result of the double- digit growth in the imports of goods at 16 percent, combined with the decline in exports of goods at 1.7 percent.”

Meanwhile, net receipts of trade- in- services totaled $ 2.8 billion during the quarter, higher than the $ 2 billion net receipts in the same quarter a year ago, which he said was “driven by the higher net receipts registered in technical, trade- related, and other business services; manufacturing services; and computer services, combined with lower net payments in transport services.”

The Bangko Sentral official added that net receipts in the secondary income account totaled $ 6.5 billion in the second quarter 2018, higher than the $ 6.4 billion net receipts a year ago.

“The 2.1-percent improvement was on account of the increase in net receipts of personal transfers, which more than offset the decline in net receipts of current transfers to the national government (72 percent),” he said.

Net receipts of personal transfers amounted to $ 6.3 billion, the bulk or about 97 percent comprised of non- resident overseas Filipino workers’ remittances totaling $ 6.1 billion.

MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO