China becomes Philippines’ biggest import supplier in January

MANILA, March 12 (Xinhua) — China was the Philippines’ biggest supplier of imports with 22.2-percent share of the total imports in January 2019, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said on Tuesday.

“Import bills to this country posted an increase of 24.5 percent or an amount of $2.01 billion, from $1.61 billion in January 2018,” the PSA said.

South Korea was placed second with an import value of $789.56 million in January 2019 or a share of 8.7 percent, the PSA said, adding that imports from this country decreased by 12.3 percent, from $899.99 million in January 2018.

The PSA said Japan ranked the third, contributing 8.7 percent or an import value of $789.00 million in January 2019. This recorded a decrement of 6.2 percent from the January 2018 value, amounting to $840.75 million, the PSA added.

The PSA said the US came fourth with a 7.2-percent share of the total import bills in January 2019. “Its total import bills contracted by 7.3 percent, from $701.65 million in January 2018 to $650.68 million in January 2019,” the PSA said.

Thailand came the fifth with imports valued at $602.67 million in the past January or a share of 6.7 percent. Import bills from this country increased by 11.7 percent, from $539.65 million in January 2018, the PSA said.

Philippines’ total external trade in goods in January 2019 reached $14.31 billion, reflecting an increase of 2.9 percent from the $13.91-billion recorded value in January 2018, according to PSA.

Of the total external trade, the PSA said $5.28 billion or 36.9 percent were exported goods and $9.03 billion or 63.1 percent were imported goods.

Furthermore, the PSA said the Philippines’ balance of trade in goods (BoT-G) increased to a $3.76-billion deficit in January 2019, from $3.16-billion deficit in January 2018.