The country’s trade deficit widened 9.3 percent year-on-year in June 2024 as exports continued to decline, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
Preliminary data show that the country’s total external trade in goods amounted to $15.44 billion in June, down by 11.3 percent from $17.40 billion in the same month last year.
Trade deficit amounted to $4.30 billion in June, with exports falling by 17.3 percent to $5.57 billion and imports dropping 7.5 percent to $10.67 billion.
This brought total exports in the first half of 2024 to $36.41 billion, up 3 percent from $35.34 billion a year ago. Imports in the first six months went down by 2.5 percent to $61.41 billion from $62.96 billion.
Trade deficit in the first half of 2024 reached $25 billion, lower than the $27.6-billion shortfall a year earlier.
By commodity group, electronic products remained the country’s top exports in June 2024 with total earnings of $2.99 billion or 53.7 percent of the total.
This was followed by other manufactured goods with an export value of $285.56 million and other mineral products with $252.03 million.
The United States remained the country’s top export destination at $897.80 million, followed by Hong Kong at $886.64 million, People’s Republic of China at $868.44 million, Japan at $746.97 million and Republic of Korea at $240.26 million.
Meanwhile, China was the country’s largest supplier of imported goods valued at $2.60 billion, followed by Indonesia, $861.69 million; Japan, $763.20 million; Republic of Korea, $715.14 million; and the US, $658.00 million.
