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THE
country’s trade deficit surged to $756 million in
January 2008 and reversed the trade surplus recorded a
year ago, according to data released by the National
Statistics Office (NSO) Wednesday.
Government data show that last year, the country had a
trade surplus of $83 million and had a lower deficit of
$528 million in December 2007.
Economist Bienvenido Oplas Jr. said the surge in the
trade deficit might be due to higher oil imports. It may
be noted that in January, world oil prices had already
breached the $100-a-barrel mark.
This,
Oplas said, was a major factor behind imports
drastically rising to 27.7 percent on the back of a
110.6-percent increase in the imports of mineral fuels,
lubricants and related materials.
“The
increase in imports was too big. This is largely due to
the value of oil imports. While the growth in the volume
of oil imports may have been small, the value was
definitely higher. Oil prices in January 2007 were only
around $60 to $70 a barrel,” Oplas said in a phone
interview.
University of Asia and the Pacific (UA&P) economics
professor Victor Abola agreed and said that the figures
did not come as a surprise.
He said
that apart from high oil prices, another factor that
contributed to the increase in trade deficit is the
appreciation of the peso, which is hurting the country’s
export earnings.
“That’s
due partly to higher oil prices and partly to the strong
peso. Last year’s total deficit was $7.3 billion as per
the BSP [Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas] so the January
figure is not surprising for me,” Abola said in a text
message to the BusinessMirror.
Electronic products remained as the country’s biggest
export, accounting for 46.3 percent of the aggregate
import bill. Payments for electronic products amounted
to $2.308 billion, or a 22.8-percent growth, over last
year’s figure of $1.880 billion and grew by 9.4 percent
from $2.109 billion last month.
Among
the major groups of electronic products,
components/devices (semiconductors) had the biggest
share of 38.1 percent, recording an increase of 27.8
percent to $1.898 billion, from $1.485 billion in
January 2007.
Meanwhile, the biggest increase in imports was posted by
mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials, and
accounted for 20.5-percent share of the country’s
aggregate import bill.
This
year, the sector posted an increase of 110.6 percent to
$1.023 billion, from last year’s figure of $485.64
million.
On the
other hand, the
United States
remained the country’s biggest source of imports in
January 2008—with a 15.2-percent share of the total
import bill, or a growth of 30.1 percent, to $757.65
million from the $582.17 million recorded in January
2007.
Japan
was the second biggest source of imports with an
11-percent share in purchases. Payments to Japan
amounted to $547.96 million or a year-on-year growth of
7.9 percent.
Singapore
was third and accounted for 10.4 percent of the total
import bill. This represented a 1.5-percent decline to
$520.78 million from $528.42 million in January 2007.
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