The country’s foreign trade declined 0.4 percent in the first half of 2024 to $97.86 billion from $98.30 billion in the same period last year, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.
This continued the 8.4-percent annual decline in external trade in the first semester of 2023 and 7.3-percent drop in the second half.
“Of the total external trade in the first semester of 2024, 62.8 percent were imported goods, while the remaining 37.2 percent were exported goods,” the PSA said.
The balance of trade in goods, or the difference between exports and imports, amounted to $25.05 billion in the first half.
Export sales amounted to $36.41 billion, indicating an annual increase of 3.0 percent from $35.34 billion a year ago. Electronic products continued to be the country’s top exports in the first semester with total earnings of $20.63 billion or 56.7 percent of the total.
Meanwhile, the total imported goods in the first half went down by 2.4 percent to $61.45 billion from $62.96 billion in the same period last year.
The commodity group with the highest import value in the first semester of 2024 was electronic products, which amounted to $12.71 billion or 20.7 percent of the total.
This was followed by mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials at $10.10 billion and transport equipment at $5.21 billion.
