Domestic trade value down 52% in Oct-Dec
THE value of domestic trade fell by 52.4 percent in the last quarter of 2023, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Thursday.
At P137.71 billion, it was a significant decline from P289.57 billion recorded in the fourth quarter of 2022.
The October-December trade drop was steeper than the -16.7 percent posted in the previous quarter.
The result was also a turnaround from the 63.2-percent increase to P289.57 billion in the same 2022 quarter.
In terms of quantity, the overall volume of domestic trade hit 3.24 million metric tons.
“This represents an annual decrease of 48.6 percent from the 6.31 million tons recorded quantity of domestic trade in the same quarter of 2022,” the PSA said.
Almost all or 99.9 percent of the goods were transported by sea while the remainder was transported by air.
Mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials were the leading commodities in terms of domestic trade quantity, accounting for 790,000 tons or 24.3 percent of the total.
This was followed by food and live animals and machinery and transport equipment which had 23.8-percent and 17.5-percent shares, respectively.
All of the monitored commodities by the PSA posted declines in trade value. The biggest drop was in the beverage and tobacco sector at 79 percent. Chemicals and related products closely followed with a 78.9-percent drop; manufactured goods classified chiefly by material fell by 74.7 percent; miscellaneous manufactured articles by 73.1 percent; food and live animals by 57.6 percent; and animal and vegetable oils, fats and waxes declined by 54.2 percent.
Commodities and transactions not classified elsewhere in the Philippine Standard Commodity Classification also dropped by 47.6 percent; mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials by 38.3 percent; machinery and transport equipment by 26.9 percent; and crude materials, inedible, except fuels by 0.4 percent.
By geographical area, Central Luzon led in terms of value of traded goods at P34.77 billion, which comprised 25.3 percent of the total. Following closely was the National Capital Region at P24.96 billion and Western Visayas at P20.26 billion.
In terms of the amount of goods entering regions, Central Visayas topped the list with P31.10 billion, comprising 22.6 percent of total trade inflows.