The government, through the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), has recently released figures showing our nation's exports of products to various countries.
The PSA said exports scaled up by 19.4 percent year on year to $7.39 billion from $6.19 billion, rebounding from a 5.0-percent drop a year ago, and also rose from the previous month’s $7.27 billion.
October’s year-on-year growth improved from September’s 16.2 percent.
The Authority claimed that the United States with a 15.7-percent share or $1.16 billion, is the biggest export market for the Philippines.
Others are Japan ($1.04 billion, 14.1 percent), Hong Kong, ($964.5 million, 13.0 percent), China ($868.44 million, 11.7 percent) and Germany ($347.26 million, 4.7 percent).
These figures are WRONG, basically because it considers exports to Hong Kong separate from those exported to China.
It should be made clear that Hong Kong is a special administrative region (SAR) of People's Republic of China, operating under the "one country, two systems" principle since its handover in 1971.
If we add the total exports of Hong Kong and China, it will amount to $1.832 billion which is higher than the United States' $1.16 billion.
China should account for 24.7 percent of the export pie.
The propensity of the government to disparage China in favor of the US is pathetic. This shows not just from the pronouncements of Commodore Jay Tarriela and Undersecretary Claire Castro. Add to that list Defense Secretary Gibo Teodoro who has a passport from Malta, and General Romeo Brawner who dreams of holding the line for 30 days while waiting for the Americans to honor their MDT commitments.
Going back to the trade figures, it was reported that the nation's trade deficit was pruned in October as exports surged and imports contracted.
This piece of data also came from the PSA.
The $3.83-billion trade deficit was markedly lower than the year-earlier $5.81 billion, plunging by 34.2 percent, and also fell from $4.67 billion in September.
Imports, meanwhile, reversed from 11.6-percent growth in October 2024 to a 6.5-percent slump to $11.22 billion from $12.0 billion. Last September saw inbound shipments grow by 5.1 percent.
Of the $18.61 billion in total external trade, which grew by a slower 2.3 percent compared to 5.3 percent a year ago and 9.1 percent in September, 60.3 percent comprised imports and 39.7 percent were goods shipped abroad.
Year to date, the cumulative trade deficit rose from $37.49 billion as of end-September to $41.32 billion but narrowed from $45.25 billion in January-October 2024.
Ten-month exports rose to $70.43 billion from $61.9 billion, up by 13.8 percent, and imports for the period were also higher at $111.75 billion — 4.3 percent higher — compared to the year ago $107.14 billion.
Electronic products remained the country’s biggest export, accounting for $4.18 billion or 56.6 percent of total outbound shipments in October.
This is followed by machinery and transport equipment ($426.07 million or 5.8 percent of total exports) and other manufactured goods ($394.76 million, 5.3 percent).
As for imports, electronic products also took the biggest share at $2.97 billion or 26.5 percent of the October total.
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