DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/12 March) – The country’s exports to Japan reached $884.95 million in January 2019, surpassing the United States of America as the top export market of the Philippines, according to data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority on Tuesday.
The PSA reported that export sales from Japan increased by 29.23% from $684.75 million in December 2018 to $884.95 million in January 2019 while those from the US went up by only 7.6% from $774.37 million in December 2018 to $833.87 million in January 2019.
Hong Kong came in as the third highest export market of the Philippines with sales reaching $662.77 million, followed by People’s Republic of China $556.93 million, Singapore $281.74 million, Thailand $209.51 million, The Netherlands $177.07 million, Republic of Korea $169.28 million, and Taiwan $165.46 million.
However, the country’s total export sales were valued at $5.28 billion in January 2019, a decrease of 1.7% compared to $5.37 billion recorded in the same period of 2018.
The decline was due to the decreases in export sales of five of the top export commodities, namely, electronic equipment and parts (-37.9%); metal components (-35.8%); gold (-33.3%); machinery and transport equipment (-24.2%); and other manufactured goods (-15.3%), PSA reported.
China has remained the country’s top supplier of imported goods, which amounted to $2 billion in January 2019, an increase of 24.5% compared to $1.61 billion in January 2018.
Korea emerged as the second biggest supplier of imports with $789.56 million, followed by Japan $789 million, USA $650.68 million, Thailand $602.67 million, Indonesia $502.46 million, Singapore $439.60 million, Taiwan $423.29 million, Vietnam $356.86 million, and Malaysia $316.74 million.
The Philippines’ total imported goods amounted to $9.03 billion last January 2019, rising by 5.8% from $8.54 billion in January 2019.
The PSA said the positive growth was attributed to increases in cereals and cereal preparations (82.5%); transport equipment (33.6%); miscellaneous manufactured articles (15.8%); plastics in primary and non-primary forms (11.1%); telecommunication equipment and electrical machinery (7.3%); other food and live animals (5.6%); industrial machinery and equipment (4.6%); and electronic products (4.1%). (Antonio L. Colina IV/MindaNews)
