PHL IMPORTS ALMOST FLAT IN AUGUST 2012 AS SOME ASIAN ECONOMIES EXPERIENCE CONTRACTIONS

MANILA—Growth in the value of imported goods for the Philippines was almost flat in August 2012 compared to the same month last year, while many neighboring Asian economies experienced contractions according to the National Economic and Development Authority.

The NEDA statement followed National Statistics Office’s (NSO) release of August 2012 imports data that was valued at US$5.06 billion. This was a 0.4-percent decline compared to the US$5.08 billion amount in August 2011.

“It is therefore important to continue to stimulate the domestic sources of growth and promote trade with other countries. The Philippine government will monitor closely these external risks and address them as necessary,” said NEDA officer-in-charge (OIC) Rolando G. Tungpalan.

Citing country data, Tungpalan said that with the exception of Hong Kong whose merchandise imports grew 1.4 percent, trade-oriented Asian economies tallied negative growth in August 2012 compared to a year ago. These include Republic of Korea (-9.8%), Thailand (-8.8%), Singapore (-8.3%), Chinese Taipei (-7.6%), Japan (-7.1%), Indonesia (-6.7%), China (-2.6%), Malaysia (-1.6%), and Viet Nam (-1.2%).

Month-on-month, the NSO reported the Philippine imports grew 1.9 percent from US$4.96 billion in July 2012. For the first eight months of 2012, imports value was pegged at US$40.8 billion, or a 0.1-percent growth from the same period last year.

Two weeks ago, the NSO reported that exports grew 5.4 percent to US$35.3 billion in the first eight months of this year, making the Philippines one of the few Asian economies that registered a positive growth.

“This reduced the country’s trade-in-goods deficit to US$5.5 billion, which is lower than the US$7.3-billion deficit recorded in the same period in 2011,” said Tungpalan.

According to the NEDA official, the negative outturn in payments for capital goods, which declined by 3.9 percent, and raw materials and intermediate goods, which marginally decreased by 0.2 percent, led to reduced merchandise imports in August 2012.

“The subdued spending on capital can be partly attributed to less optimistic sentiment of the industry and construction sectors during the third quarter because of rising oil prices, volatile metal prices, tight supply of raw materials, and lingering anxiety over the sluggish output growth prospects for China and advanced economies,” said Tungpalan.

Despite this, Tungpalan noted that businesses’ optimism for the final quarter of 2012 is at its record high.

“According to the Business Expectations Survey by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, businesses’ outlook in the fourth quarter of 2012 rose to an all-time high of 59.6 percent since the survey started in 2006. This bodes well for a rebound in the country’s external trade in the final stretch of 2012,” said Tungpalan.

The NEDA official also said that brisk importation of consumer goods, which grew 9.7 percent, and mineral fuels and lubricant, which grew 1.8 percent, was able to contain the decline in imports in August 2012.

In terms of the source of inward shipments of merchandise goods, the NSO reported that the United States of America (USA) was the main source of imported goods in August 2012, with an 11.8-percent share in the total value of inward shipments. The USA was followed by China (10.8%), Taiwan (10.2%), Japan (10.0%) and Singapore (9.3%). On the other hand, the value of imported goods from other ASEAN members represented 25.3 percent of the country’s total merchandise imports in August 2012.

Tungpalan, who is Deputy Director-General for Investment Programming, is OIC of NEDA from October 21 to 25, 2012, while Socioeconomic Planning Secretary and NEDA Director-General Arsenio M. Balisacan is on official business abroad.

M.R. No. 2012-074

25 October 2012