Trade gap narrows to nine-month low in November

THE PHILIPPINES’ trade deficit in goods narrowed further in November as export growths quickened year on year, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported on Friday.

Preliminary data from the PSA showed the country’s trade-in-goods balance — the difference between exports and imports — stood at a shortfall of $3.51 billion in November, 28.8% lower than the revised $4.94-billion gap a year earlier.

Month on month, the trade gap shrank to a nine-month low from the revised $4.19-billion deficit in October.
The latest figure was the narrowest trade deficit since $2.97-billion imbalance in February.

In the January-to-November period, the trade deficit narrowed to $45.2 billion, down 9.3% from the $50.18 billion gap in the same period last year.

The country’s trade balance has remained in deficit for over a decade or since the $64.95-million surplus recorded in May 2015. — Pierce Oel A. Montalvo