The trade deficit widened 76.3 percent in September to $4 billion from a shortfall of $2.26 billion a year ago, as the 24.8-percent growth in imports outpaced the 6.3-percent expansion in exports, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority show.
It also swelled to $29.1 billion in the first nine months, compared to the $18-billion deficit a year earlier.
ING Bank Manila senior economist Nicholas Mapa said the protracted run of outsized trade deficits would likely sap momentum from the overall GDP numbers in the near term.
“Unlike the recent capital formation boom from 2016-2018, surging imports for the 2021 episode are bloated partly by expensive oil and to some extent supported by the robust demand for our electronics. Meanwhile, other areas of the import portfolio such as capital goods and consumer imports have posted slowing growth, suggesting that the rebound in economic activity still has some space to accelerate,” Mapa said.
“The wider trade deficit and more importantly the movement of its components suggest that GDP momentum has improved but remains subdued and will need some time before a full recovery is made,” Mapa said.
Merchandise exports grew 6.3 percent in September to $6.68 billion, led by increases in shipments of chemicals (up 55.4 percent), gold (44.3 percent) and copper cathodes (39.8 percent).
This brought the cumulative export earnings from January to September to $55.68 billion, or 18 percent higher than the export value earned a year earlier.
By commodity group, electronic products continued to be the country’s top export in September 2021 with total earnings of $3.82 billion. This accounted for 57.1 percent of the total exports during the period.
Meanwhile, imports climbed 24.8 percent in September to $10.67 billion, on the back of increases in the top 10 major commodity groups led by mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials with a 117.4-percent increase.
The cumulative import value from January to September reached $84.87 billion, up by 30.3 percent from $65.15 billion in the same period of 2020.
Most of the imported goods were electronic products with an import value of $2.80 billion or a share of 26.2 percent to the total imports in September.