January imports up by 21.8%

MANILA, Philippines - The country's merchandise imports grew by 21.8 percent to $5.757 billion in January from the $4.727 billion posted a year ago, the National Statistics Office (NSO) reported on Tuesday.

"The positive growth was mainly brought about by the increase of nine major commodities out of the top ten commodities for the month.  These are: power generating and specialized machinery; transport equipment; cereals and cereal preparations; mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials; miscellaneous manufactured articles; other food & live animals; plastics in primary and non-primary forms; electronic products; and iron and steel," NSO said.

On a monthly basis, imports expanded by 6.4 percent from $5.413 billion. On the other hand, the balance of trade in goods posted a $1.376-billion deficit in January from the $716-million deficit in the same period last year.

“The three-month moving average growth in January 2014 suggests that imports could be trending upwards in line with the expected recovery in exports,” said Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan.

In terms of imports source, China was on top with a 14.7-percent share or $844 million of the total. This was followed by the United States of America (10.6 percent), South Korea (8.7 percent), Taiwan (7.5 percent), France (6.3 percent), Japan (6.2 percent), Saudi Arabia (6.2 percent), Singapore (5.7 percent), Thailand (5.3 percent) and Indonesia (4.5 percent).