The Philippines’ balance of trade in goods yielded a wider deficit in July as growth in imports outpaced the increase in exports amid the continued recovery in global trade from the disruption brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed Thursday.
Preliminary data released by the PSA showed the country’s trade gap amounted to $3.29 billion in July, wider by 54.1% from $2.134 billion in the same month last year.
The balance of trade in goods is the difference between the value of export and import.
A deficit indicates that the value of a country’s imports exceeded export receipts, while a surplus indicates more export shipments than imports.
Total external trade, the summation of imports and exports, amounted to $16.13 billion, up 19.2.8% from $13.53 billion in July 2020.
Imports accounted for 60.2% of the country’s external trade while the rest or 39.8% were exported goods.
“Philippine external trade for the month of July 2021 remains a bright spot for the Philippine economy despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, with exports among record highs at $6.4 billion (near the record high of $6.8 billion posted in March 2021) and imports already among the highest levels since October 2019, or a few months before the pandemic, at $9.7 billion (or $1 billion away from the record high of $10.7 billion posted in October 2018),” Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation chief economist Michael…
