Trade deficit estimate for 2020 revised to $24.597B from $21.83B previously

REVISIONS to the trade data for 2020 yielded a larger than initially estimated deficit of $24.597 billion, compared with the tally announced in January of $21.830 billion, the Philippine Statistics Authority said Wednesday.

The revised goods trade deficit is smaller than the deficits of $43.533 billion and $40.666 billion in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

The revised export total for 2020 was $65.215 billion, against the $63.767 billion estimated previously. The new tally was 8.1% lower than the $70.927 billion posted in 2019, helping the export sector outperform the 16% decline forecast by the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC).

Imports last year were revised higher to $89.812 billion from $85.607 billion. The new total represents a decline of 19.5% from the imports tallied in 2019. The DBCC had assumed an import decline of 20%.

Exports of manufactured goods fell 8.7% to $53.779 billion in 2020. Goods accounted for 82.5% of last year’s export total.

Electronics exports, which accounted for 58.2% of merchandise goods, declined 5.2% to $37.951 billion.

Agriculture-based exports fell 7.4% to $4.784 billion last year.

Imports of capital goods fell 20.5% to $29.752 billion. These goods accounted for 33.1% of last year’s goods imports.

Likewise, consumer goods imports fell 19.8% to $15.447 billion in 2020, while imports of raw materials and intermediate goods fell 11% to $36.158 billion.

Japan took in $10.03 billion worth of Philippine exports, or 15.4% of the total. The US bought $10.02 billion for a 15.4% share and China $9.83 billion or 15.1%.

The top source of imports was China with goods worth $20.87 billion or 23.2% of the total, followed by Japan with $8.62 billion or 9.6% and the US $6.92 billion or 7.7% share. — Marissa Mae M. Ramos