Trade deficit widened as exports fell in May

The Philippines’ trade deficit widened 4.5 percent year-on-year in May 2024, as exports slightly dropped, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday.

Preliminary data showed the country’s total external trade in goods amounted to $17.26 billion, representing an annual decrease of 1.2 percent from $17.46 billion in the same period last year.

Trade deficit reached $4.60 billion, with exports falling 3.1 percent to $6.33 billion and imports nearly flat at $10.93 billion.

The PSA said that in the first five months of 2024, exports amounted to $30.84 billion, a 7.8-percent increase from $28.61 billion recorded a year earlier.

By commodity group, electronic products continued to be the country’s top exports in May 2024 with total earnings of $3.56 billion or 56.2 percent of the total exports during the period.

This was followed by other manufactured goods with an export value of $337.62 million and other mineral products with $302.90 million.

The United States remained the country’s major trading partner with total exports of $1.08 billion, followed by Hong Kong, $904.79 million; Japan, $882.70 million; China, $847.12 million; and Thailand, $ 267.14 million.

Imports in the first five months amounted to $51.43 billion, down by 1.7 percent from $52.29 billion a year ago.

China was the country’s biggest source of imported goods in May, amounting to $ 2.73 billion. It was followed by the Korea, with $989.60 million; Indonesia, $972.15 million; the United States, $748.19 million; and Thailand, $707.44 million.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) underscored the importance of diversifying the country’s growth drivers, boost investments and improve its export performance.

“While we continue to buoy consumption and enhance services, we must reinvigorate the other pillars of economic growth—investment and exports, particularly manufacturing and agribusiness—to sustain growth and make it more resilient in the years and decades to come,” NEDA Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said in an economic forum Monday.