Phl trade gap widens to $2.41B in August

The country's balance of trade in goods posted a wider deficit in August as imports continued to outpace exports, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Tuesday.

PSA data showed the trade deficit amounted to $2.41 billion in August from $2.13 billion a year earlier.

"This is expected. The jump in imports is mainly investment oriented, which is not entirely bad for a developing country like the Philippines," Union Bank of the Philippines chief economist Ruben Carlo Asuncion told GMA News Online.

Imports reached $7.92 billion, up 10.5 percent from $7.17 billion.

Exports totaled $5.51 billion, up 9.3 percent from $5.04 billion—its ninth consecutive month of positive growth.

"The widening trade gap can be traced to the continuing increase in imports of capital goods and intermediate goods or raw materials, both of which are crucial to the government's infrastructure and related programs. The weakening of the peso aggravated the situation too," Cid L. Terosa, Dean of the School of Economics of the University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P), said in a separate text message.

"Imports continued to exceed exports because of increase in demand in import commodities such as iron steel construction materials to be used in infrastructure development in the country," John Paolo R. Rivera, an independent economic consultant, said separately.

According to the PSA, imports of iron and steel grew by 32.0 percent to $2.081 billion during the month, up from the $1.576 billion the same period in 2016.

The government plans to spend over P8 trillion on the country's golden age of infrastructure over the next six years, which will largely be funded by tax revenues.

The total external trade amounted to $13.42 billion, up 10 percent from $12.20 billion.