Philippines imports declined at a pace of 5.8 percent in February from a year ago, following a 7.9 percent drop in January, the National Statistics Office said Thursday.
On a monthly basis, the decline in imports slowed to 0.4 percent from 10.8 percent in January.
Exports, at the same time, showed a 15.6 percent decrement to $3.74 billion from the prior year. As a result, the balance of trade in goods registered a deficit of $967 million compared to a $566 million deficit in the same period last year.
Accounting for 26.5 percent of the aggregate import bill, payments for electronic products were down 12.6 percent from a year ago in February. Meanwhile, imports of mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials ranked second with 25.7 percent share and posted a positive annual growth rate of 20.2 percent.
United States of America including Alaska and Hawaii was the country's biggest source of imports for February. It was followed by China, Japan and Singapore.
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