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PAYMENTS
for imported goods went up by a smallish 5.7 percent to
$16.307 billion from $15.766 billion by April as demand
for electronic products weakened during the period.
In April
alone, the total import bill for electronic products
were down a steep 17.29 percent to $1.85 billion from
$2.23 billion last year, in spite of an earlier outlook
that the purchase of these goods would pick up with the
peso’s continuing appreciation versus the US dollar.
“[There
was a] decline in the import bill of semiconductors,
electronic data processing, consumer electronics and
telecommunications,” the National Statistics Office said
in a note issued Tuesday.
Aggregate import payments during the month were
1.8-percent lower year-on-year to $4.34 billion from
$4.42 billion previously.
Economists had expected that with the peso currently at
P46 to the dollar, manufacturing activities would
improve since major production requirements such as
crude oil and unprocessed or semiprocessed electronic
items can be bought at cheaper prices.
Imports
of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials,
which made up a little more than a fifth of April
purchases, increased 74.1 percent to $930.03 million
over last year’s $534.29 million. This was the highest
growth recorded for the commodity this year because of
better volumes of crude and crude-based oils and fuels
brought in, the NSO said in its statement.
Consumers likewise appeared unable to capitalize on the
stronger peso as four-month payments for imported
consumer goods were almost flat at $1.2 billion from
$1.21 billion last year. Imports of nondurables were
down to $643.43 million from $765.85 million, although
payments for durables reached $561.29 million, or higher
than the $446.54 million posted the previous period.
Imports
from the
United States
were 21.1 percent lower at $638.87 million in April from
$809.79 million last year, and accounted for 14.7
percent of aggregate payments, followed by Singapore
with $530.84 million from $354.91 million previously.
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