Philippine Imports Continue to Grow

[MikeLigalig.com]

by Manila Bulletin - The country’s merchandise imports in February 2012 went up by 4.9 percent to $4.93 billion from $4.761 billion in February 2011.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) reported that aggregate imports for the first two months of 2012, inched up by 0.6 percent to $10.12 billion from $10.06 billion posted during the same period in 2011.

Accounting for 28.7 percent of the aggregate import bill, payments for electronic products in February 2012 amounted to $1.43 billion, down by 5.1 percent over last year's $1.51 billion.

Among the major groups of electronic products, semiconductors having the biggest share of 21.3 percent decreased by 15.9 percent from $1.267 billion to $1.065 billion.

Imports of mineral fuels ranked second with 20.1 percent share and posted a negative annual growth rate of 2.8 percent from reported value of $1.034 billion in February 2011 to $1.006 billion in February 2012.

Transport equipment was the country's third top import for the month with 9.1 percent share to total imports valued at $451.91 million, up by 53.9 percent from previous year level of $293.65 million.