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BY Darwin G. Amojelar, Reporter
Philippine imports skidded in
December owing to weak purchase of electronic products, although the
country bought more goods abroad for the whole year of 2006, the
National Statistics Office (NSO) said Tuesday.
The NSO said expenditures for
imported goods declined by 1.3 percent in December to $4.157 billion
from $4.209 billion in the same month of 2005.
From January to December, overall
imports for 2006 grew 8.7 percent to $51.52 billion from $47.418
billion.
Exports, on the other hand,
posted an increase of 14 percent to aggregate dollar revenue of
$47.037 billion from $41.255 billion in the previous year.
Selling more than it is spending,
the Philippines posted a positive trade deficit of $4.485 billion in
2006, lower than the gap of $6.163 billion in 2005.
The country’s payment for
mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials grew 17.7 percent to
$558.30 million from the previous year’s level of $474.27 million.
“The increase was due to the
high volume of importation on motor spirit [gasoline], diesel oil
and aviation gasoline,” the NSO said.
Purchases for transport equipment
amounted to $204.44 million from last year’s $218.97 million, or a
decrease of 6.6 percent.
Rounding up the list of top
imports for December were industrial machinery and equipment,
$148.79 million; textile yarn, fabrics, made-up articles and related
products, $81.10 million; iron and steel, $82.73 million; primary
and nonpri-mary forms, $74.83 million; telecommunication equipment
and electrical machinery, $64.77 million; organic and inorganic
chemicals, $60.26 million; and cereals and cereal preparations with
$51.24 million.
Total payment for the country’s
top 10 imports for December 2006 reached $3.418 billion, or 82.2
percent of the total bill.
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