The Philippines posted a wider trade deficit in November 2023 because of the sharp decline in exports, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said Wednesday.
Data from the PSA showed that the trade deficit reached $4.69 billion, higher than $3.71 billion registered in November 2022.
The PSA blamed the trade gap to the weak exports in November, which plummeted 13.7 percent to $6.13 billion from $7.10 billion in the same month of the previous year.
The commodity group with the highest annual drop in the value of exports in November 2023 was electronic products with $1.13 billion to $4.56 billion. This was followed by coconut oil with an annual decline of $26.76 million to $98.57 million and gold with an annual decrease of $18.61 million to $85 million
The US remained the top export market for the Philippines in November with $970.22 million, followed by Japan with $949.66 million, China with $821.53 million, Hong Kong with $721.54 million and South Korea with $326.48 million
Exports in the first 11 months of 2023 also went down by 8.4 percent to $67.03 billion from $73.18 billion in the same period in 2022.
Meanwhile, imports rose 0.02 percent to $10.820 billion in November from $10.817 billion a year earlier.
Imports in the 11-month period fell 8.6 percent to $116.01 billion from $126.90 billion a year ago.