The country’s trade deficit widened by 38.1 percent in 2022 as imports recorded double digit growth.
Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority showed the trade deficit rose to $58.32 billion last year from $42.23 billion in 2021.
Imports grew 17.3 percent for the full year, to $137.16 billion from the previous year’s $116.88 billion.
Meanwhile, exports posted a slower growth of 5.6 percent, to $78.84 billion in 2022 from $74.65 billion in the prior year.
In December alone, the trade deficit contracted by 10.2 percent, to $4.6 billion from $5.12 billion in the same month in 2021.
This as imports and exports declined 9.9 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively, to $10.26 billion and $5.67 billion.
Michael Ricafort, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist, said in an emailed statement yesterday the trade deficit performance in December was largely brought about by the sharp decline in both exports amid lower global commodity prices that reduced the value of some export items, risk of recession in the United States that reduced some demand for exports, and the COVID restrictions earlier in 2022 in China. However, COVID restrictions in China already eased since December 2022.
Imports are also at new 10-month lows amid the downward correction in the prices of global crude oil and other major global commodity imported by the country, Ricafort said.
“The significant narrowing in the trade deficit data in recent months may have fundamentally helped stabilize and even improved the peso exchange rate,” Ricafort said. – Angela Celis
