Date: April 2003

Foreign Trade Up 15 Percent in 2 Months

The country's total foreign trade surged by a remarkable 15.3 percent to US$11.148 billion in the first two months of the year from only US$9.669 billion record a year earlier, largely because of a 30 percent increase in inbound shipments. Analysts, however, believe that despite the rosy figures in the first two months, the country's shipments may slow in the coming months because of the projected slowdown in the economies of East Asian countries affected by the dreaded severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

A pickup in shipments to Asian countries helped the Philippines improve its export performance last year despite the continuous poor demand from the two largest international markets - the United States and Japan.

With East Asian countries struggling with protective masks against the infection of a highly contagious pneumonia-like virus, the Philippines now faces the challenge of penetrating other markets like South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

The country's exports grew by 2.9 percent to US$5.414 billion in January and February this year from US$5.259 billion during the same months last year while imports climbed by 30 percent to US$5.734 billion from US$4.409 billion. This resulted in a balance of trade worth US$319 million in favor of the Philippines, although it was down by 138 percent from US$850 million posted a year ago.

Latest monthly figures from the National Statistics Office (NSO) show that the combined merchandise trade grew by 12 percent to US$5.540 billion in February this year from US$4.948 billion in February 2002.

Exports improved by 3.6 percent to US$2.723 billion in February this year from US$2.628 billion a year earlier while imports rose by 21.4 percent to US$2.817 billion from US$2.320 billion. Higher imports for the month resulted in a trade deficit of US$93 million, a turnaround from the US$308 million trade surplus registered a year earlier.

In February, exports to the US, accounting for 21.6 percent of the total, dropped by 10.5 percent to US$588.68 million from US$657.51 a year earlier while shipments to Japan, accounting for 15.2 percent, fell 3 percent to US$414.27 million from US$427.32 million.

Other top destinations of Philippine exports in February were the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, South Korea and Germany.

Shipments of electronics, accounting for 53.7 percent of all exports, amounted to US$1.464 billion in February this year, up by 4.5 percent from US$1.4 billion a year earlier. Other top Philippine exports in February were apparel, petroleum products and wiring sets for vehicles, aircraft and ships were the second.

Top imports during the same month were electronics and components, which amounted to US$780.40 million; mineral fuels, US$364.69 million; and office machines, US$259.15 million.
Leading importers to the Philippines were Japan, which shipped US$590.12 billion worth of merchandise goods in February; and the US, which brought in US$573.22 billion.

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