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MANILA, Dec.10 (Xinhua) – The Philippines’ total foreign trade in goods in October fell 12.8 percent from a year earlier to $ 14.18 billion amid nearly nine-month lockdown restrictions to slow the spread. of COVID-19.
“This was faster than the previous month’s annual drop by 8.2 percent, and in October 2019 by 4.6 percent,” the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) said in a report Thursday.
Of the total foreign trade in October 2020, the PSA said that 56.3 percent were imported goods, while the rest exported goods.
The PSA said total export sales in October 2020, which reached $ 6.20 billion, declined at an annual rate of 2.2 percent, from a 2.9 percent increase in the previous month. .
The data showed that cumulative export earnings from January to October 2020 amounted to US $ 52.11 billion, 12.5 percent less than the export value obtained from January to October 2019.
Acting Secretary for Socio-Economic Planning Karl Kendrick Chua said that despite the declines, there are some positive takeaways from the trade data.
Chua said merchandise exports to major regional trading partners, such as China and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, grew in double digits.
PSA data showed that exports to China in October grew 15.2 percent to US $ 944.78 million.
The PSA said that total imported goods in October 2020, which amounted to $ 7.98 billion, remained in a downward trend with an annual rate of 19.5 percent.
The value of imports continued to register negative annual growth for 18 consecutive months since May 2019, the PSA added.
The data showed that the accumulated value of imports from January to October 2020 amounted to 70.04 billion US dollars, representing a decrease of 25.2 percent compared to the import value of 93.61 thousand. million US dollars recorded in the same period of 2019.
